Widmer Brothers W'05 India Pale Ale

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Bottle Date of Jan 18, 2005, Sampled March 2005
Pours a pretty, clear, copper gold color and is topped by a frothy, almost rocky light tan head. The aroma is on the pungent side with notes citrus and pine in about an even balance, though perhaps the piney almost herbal aromatics tip the scales a bit in their direction. The taste has a certain pungent hoppiness to it all throughout, from beginning to end. The taste is malty sweet up front, which accentuates the fruity hop notes, with a bit of tasty malt-type notes that remind me of toasted biscuits. This beer has a solid bitterness throughout as well, in fact this IPA is weighted a bit towards the bitter side of an IPA, as opposed to the floral hop flavors and aromatics.

This is certainly an enjoyable IPA, and it is perhaps a bit better than I was expecting, but it is still not quite stellar. For my taste I wish that it was a bit more weighted toward the floral characteristics of the hop plant. It is good though, and I would not turn this down when offered.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Had some doubts about this one when I first sighted it in the liquor store. But I didn't want to clean out the liquor store's displayed stock of Vertical Epic 05.05.05 without at least taking a chunk out of their normal inventory (yeah, I am weird, tks). And figured I'd give this a spin around the block, while hanging with a buddy of mine as he homebrewed a batch of Hefeweizen.

End result? Not a perfect example of the style -- but a worthwhile PacNW IPA just the same.

Pale gold in appearence -- perhaps a little lighter than what I'm normally used to seeing from this style. Fair amount of foam, with lots of complex lacing.

Only adequate nose, surprisingly enough. Really seems to miss the boat in the aroma department, IMHO.

But at least things turn around nicely when it comes to the flavor profile. That is to say, lots of good ol' hoppiness through and through -- with enough malt to give it a nice even playing field. Improves with warmth, too..., making this rather quaffable as time goes by.

Perhaps a little too drying and astrigent in the mouthfeel at times, but no significant faults overall.... Sessionable, for a 6.0%ABV beer.

A beer that I can quickly warm up to. Yes, it does have some weird aftertaste issues. But in the grand scheme of things, not a bad drop at all -- especially for a brewery I really haven't taken seriously since the late 20th Century.

Music: Sonata Arctica's "Ecliptica".
//TB

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Orange gold color. Small sized white foamy head. Aroma is floral hops. A medium bodied IPA. Malts are fruity (orange) and sweet. Touches of caramel and biscuits. Hops are grapefruity and floral. Nice balance. Mildly bitter IPA. Lively carbonation. Good session IPA. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

This beer comes courtesy of beerguy101. This beer pours a golden yellow color, fairly clear, with a nice but thin white head and moderate to light lacing on the sides of my glass. The aroma is hoppy, somewhat thick and piney with oak and citrus also evident..typical IPA thus far. The mouthfeel is moderate to full with a thick but not sticky hoppy flavor ending bitter and dry with a touch of malt and citrus. Some sweetening caramel could also be detected around mid-sip adding a nice bit of balance to this beer. Carbonation was active, mouthfeel was solid....overall a very nice beer.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

New Widmer seasonal "Brewmasters Release 2005" same old Widmer ,raised, brown bottle..simple white label with orange and black writing. Appearance is ok for style, dark golden with a fine sized frothy white head..great lace. Very nice aroma for a Widmer beer..very up front hopping,pine like in intensity. Wow I am surprised ,this is an excellent regular IPA,very well hopped with a nice syrupy malt backbone.. very nicelly done. Great smooth ,yet soomehow tingly mouthfeel to this one, semi-dry finish. I found this quite drinkable. Very surprised a really good IPA from Widmers.