Special “Hop into Spring” Review -Six Point- Spice of life (Pacifica Hop Strain)

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April 6, 2013 by kylelecl

Hey guys, last night I had the honor, neigh, privilege to sample a super exclusive seasonal beer from the Six Point Brewery. My friend and fellow Beer-nut Jason Kress, informed me that his work place Premier Gourmet, had just tapped some of this super fresh brew for their ‘growler club’, and fortunately he was able to snag a bottle-full without anyone watching. After work he cleverly hid his growler in his shirt, and made off to our beer lab with all haste. Back in the tasting lab he revealed the loot, and explained in full detail its contents.

Basically this special Brew from Six Point, is a constantly changing, year round experiment, where the brewers take a standard IPA recipe and change out the Hop strain according to it’s seasonal variety.

 

This means that the barley, malt and all other basic ingredients stay the same year round, but the type of Hops added changes from month to month, allowing the taster to enjoy the unique characteristics of each strain. Twelve different Hops for twelve separate and Unique IPAs. This particular Strain, Pacifica Hops, is cultivated in the colder November-December months, giving it a clean, sturdy constitution, and slight fruity aromas. Needless to say, after hearing about this beer experiment I was eager to partake in it!

 

We poured out some of this mysterious serum into Jason’s pint glass, to reveal a deep gold beer with a huge white head. This beer was pungent too, filling up the room with grapefruit, floral hops and slight citrus aromas.

Tasting this special brew, I got mostly subtle hopiness up front, some sweet notes, but not much on the fruity or citrus end, differing from the smell quite a bit. The Pacifica hops are very subtle in their bitterness, with a bit of lemon tang lingering on the palette, giving this IPA a very clean and light feel, really enjoyable. The body of this beer is nice, medium carbonation and silky smooth on the way down, not much of a dry finish for 6% ABV content. I was a little disappointed with the lack of flavor complexity, as the dominant taste was light hops, not much depth or sweetness from the malts used.

However this beer is made to accentuate the specific strain of hops that is used for each month, and for this month the Pacifica strain is ultimately a subdued floral hop, with slight bittering and citrus peel characteristics. This is a very easy drinking beer though, with a medium body and squeaky clean finish, a perfect IPA to start off our Hop into Spring series!

Overall Rating: 3.2 Blooming Hop Fields out of 5

If you guys want to read up more on the Six Points Spice of Life experiment you can here- http://sixpoint.com/menus/sol2012-2013.pdf

Thanks again for reading and as always,

Slainte!