Presidential IPA

Tasted Monday evening with FauxJoshSchipp and Jen. Enjoyed along side a fresh omelet made from ingredients from our back year. Thanks to Joe Wietlispach for donating this to the blog!

Appearance: A viscous rustic copper with a fine, densely foamed head. The beer has a reddish hue that reflects an opaque texture. Transparency is inhibited, but micro carbonation can be seen up close.
Aroma: Robust fruitiness from the interaction of hops and malt. The General caramel/biscuit malt backbone collides with a fruitiness of dark raisins and plums. Some pine and grapefruit, but predominantly very aromatic in terms of mellow caramelized fruit.
Taste: Very sweet initially. Sweetness resides in terms of caramel and fruit. Very well balanced. There is a mellow toasted grain aspect under the fruity interacted sweetness. Once the palate has been acquainted, the malt is much more apparent. The second half maintains a woody fruit sweetness, leaving a lot to the base malt and less to the hops. Similarly I can pick up some candied beet sugar/cane sugar. Dark caramelized fruit still is a very prominent flavor. Raisin, dates and plums..
Mouthfeel: Medium to heavier body with a thicker fore-texture but the fine carbonation makes for a soft and smooth feel. The beer is less drying, but in fact more tacky, leaving a stickiness to the lips, but also a cloying factor on the roof of the mouth
Overall Impression: This is an IPA (maybe) more focused on a bigger body and a malt base than playing with hops. It's an exact opposite of Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA (first to come to mind). However the toasted malt makes for a fantastic introductory IPA to those looking to expand their bitter palates up from the pale ales.


90/100