Last week, I tried out an imperial version of an “East Coast hazy” Indian pale Ale. Now we’ll back to a new iteration of the West Coast version.
Oskar Blues Brewery has sent me a six-pack of their new Western Mutant IPA. They called it an attempt to re-establish the West Coast IPA style, but with a mix of hops from all over: Nelson Sauvin (New Zealiand), Akoya™ (Germany), Saphir (Germany), Simcoe® (Pacific Northwest). It clocks in at 7.0% abv. It’s the first in a planned “Hop Forward” IPA series.
I tried to compare this to the Crystal Lake Hoptopus I had earlier, which was a New England Style IPA. This one is actually still in hazy territory. It poured cloudy, but instead of staying opaque, it cleared slightly in the glass to suggest there was more filtering at work. A firm persistent white head.
The nose was mainly more tropical fruit, not as strong as the NEIPA, and there a notable twang of pine resin. The taste brings in the different hops, with a peppery German note, still some citrus fruit, but some resiny bitterness. I tried to think of a Sierra Nevada, but that has a bit more toast to the malt, while this is lighter to let the hops play by themselves. It leaves the familiar bitter aftertaste to remember it by.
A glass of Oskar Blues’ Western Mutant IPA
Filed under:
Beer Review
Tags:
Oskar Blues, West Coast IPA
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