Brooklyn Brewery-East India IPA

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October 10, 2013 by kylelecl

Hey guys, this week I tried a few beers, some great, others not so much, out of the bunch I really enjoyed Brooklyn Brewery’s rendition of the IPA the most. I’ve always respected this brewery, not only because it’s in my hometown, but also because it was one of the original micro breweries to drive really good beer into the market, along with Sam Adams, Dogfish Head and a few others. Anyway I’m really glad that their IPA can stand alone as a great beer, among the present IPA hop saturated beer craze.

Popping open my can, I got some piney hops aromas, but mostly light malts and citrus. Poured out into a pint this beer is truly beautiful, deep gold with a huge fluffy head, this is what a beer should look like! Taking a sip, I got some really nice sweet malt flavors up front, mixed with some grapefruit and lemon, then backed up with a nice medium bitterness from the hops. The hops character here is big and complex, a floral and earthy flavor, a really fresh taste that adds a nice bitter bite to the ale.  For a 7% alcohol content beer this beer is dangerously smooth, in fact I almost choked when I read that number on the side of the can because this beer goes down real easy. One thing that I noticed about this beer is that for an IPA it is not overly hopped, in fact I was really satisfied with the big malt presence here, although it is not overly sweet, it adds a big backbone to carry the bitterness from the hops, something many breweries often overlook when dry hopping the hell out of their pale ales. I think that this beer is a perfect gateway drug for non-IPA fans to try, as it is not as bitter as most, balanced,complex and smooth. Did I mention that this IPA is smooth? I mean if I wasn’t looking I would think I was drinking a light lager, it went down like water, no alcohol noticed at all. All in all this is a great go at a classical IPA, sweet,bitter and refreshing, I would recommend this beer to all beer lovers.

Overall rating: 4 malt-backbones out of 5

http://brooklynbrewery.com/brooklyn-beers/perennial-brews/brooklyln-east-india-pale-ale

Thanks for reading guys, please comment or follow, until next time,

Slainte!