Warrior IPA enters the Siouxland marketplace with a fresh hop beer brewed with 100% Colorado-grown hops. My only fault with the beer is that I think the hop profile gets a little too jiggy in the finish.

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co. in Longmont, Colo., Warrior pours a deep golden orange with a tall, light tan head that left lots of lacing in the glass.

Its aroma is of  citrus and floral hops with an almost equal amount of caramel malt notes.

Warrior’s initial flavor is a short blast of sweet caramel malt at the tip of the tongue. The malt flavors are then overrun by strong floral and piney hop flavors at mid-tongue. However, as much as the hops overtake the malt, apparent malt flavors remain to provide a pleasant backbone for the bitterness.

Hop flavors start to get a little jiggy, turning slightly vegetal at the sides of the tongue. Those rather strong flavors increase and continue into the back of the throat.

Finish is medium in length and keys on floral and astringent hop flavors, supported by caramel malt sweetness. At the very end of Warrior’s finish, the hop flavors turn slightly soapy.

Warrior is listed at 6.6% alcohol by volume and 60 IBUs. Thankfully, the beer’s caramel malt flavors are able to support its hop profile. Because without the level of malt it has, Warrior’s finish would be akin to an astringent hop bomb.

I consider the beer to be full flavored and medium bodied.

Warrior IPA was purchased at the HyVee Wine and Spirits in South Sioux City, Nebr.

-Tim Hynds

From a press release -

(LONGMONT, CO) – Left Hand Brewing Company’s seasonal Warrior IPA disregards your notions about what an IPA should be. Bold, vibrant and beautifully aromatic, Warrior IPA is brewed only once a year using fresh flower Colorado-grown Cascade hops flown in from Rising Sun Farms in Paonia, as well as varieties from the brewery’s own hop fields.

True to the brewery’s philosophy, a strong malt foundation complements the bright floral hoppiness, allowing for a well-balanced assault on your palate.

Warrior IPA is a full-bodied, bronzed beauty that swings at you with 60 IBU’s and 6.6% ABV. Respect her and she will respect you.

Available in 22 oz bombers and kegs for the fall season. Distributed throughout Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan (western only), Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, Alaska, Alabama (draft only), Florida, Tennessee (Nashville only), Georgia, North Carolina, and select European countries.

About Left Hand Brewing Company
Celebrating sixteen years of brewing a well-balanced portfolio of craft beers, Left Hand Brewing Company is located at 1265 Boston Avenue in Longmont, Colorado. The brewery has received 16 medals at the Great American Beer Festival and 8 medals at the World Beer Cup, and its beers are now available in 26 states.

Six-Hop IPA, part of the Wholehog series from the Stevens Point Brewery in Stevens Point, Wisc., is a nice 87 IBU IPA with floral hop leanings.

Six-Hop pours a clear copper with a short, quick to collapse tan head.  The IPA’s aroma is floral and citrus hops with supporting notes of sweet caramel.

The ale’s initial flavor is of sweet caramel malt that quickly segues to a piney hop flavor at the front to the tongue.

Floral and slightly citrus hop flavors build in intensity as the beer slides to the middle of tongue. These hop flavors are well supported by slightly sweet caramel malt flavors. A slight bit of nuttiness was also detected at mid-tongue.

Hop flavors turn big and all floral at the back of the throat and this is where some alcohol warmth from this 8.5% alcohol by volume beer becomes noticeable. That warmth is not distracting and tends to counterbalance the Six-Hop’s hop and malt profile.

Six-Hop’s finish is fairly long and keys on floral and piney hop bitterness and residual malt sweetness.

I consider Six-Hop to be full bodied and full flavored. I recommend it as a worthy IPA.

Six-Hop was purchased at the HyVee Wine and Spirits in South Sioux City, Nebr.

-Tim Hynds

Big.

It’s an oft overused word when describing some beers, but in the case of Great Divide Brewing Company’s Titan IPA, it’s apt.

The Denver brewery’s IPA is so hoppy, that I would have guessed it to be a double IPA had I tasted it blind. However, unlike Hercules, (Great Divide’s true dipa) Titan showed a little more balance between its hop and malt profiles.

Titan poured a honey gold color with a tall light tan head that left some lacing on the glass. Its aroma held notes of sweetish caramel malt and substantial piney hops.

Titan’s initial flavors is all hops. At first sip, the beer shows assertive grapefruit and orange citrus that only grows in intensity as the beer reaches the sides and back of the throat.

At mid-tongue, subtle nutty malt sweetness comes into play. It’s sort of a toffee/mild brown sugar/ light honey sweetness.

Mind you, the malt sweetness never even comes close to matching the beer’s hop flavors, but it does lend a welcome bit of balance and take the edge off the hop flavors.

Those hop flavors take a turn towards the piney and floral at the back of the throat. Again, it’s a very intense and sharp flavor.

Hop flavors dominate Titan’s very long and very dry finish with a piney – almost resinous – flavor.

Titan is listed at 7.1% alcohol by volume and was purchased at the South Sioux City, Nebr., HyVee Wine and Spirits. I consider it full bodied and full flavored.

It is recommended for those who enjoy a highly hopped IPA.

-Tim Hynds

Ok, true confession time.

I’m not a real big fan of pale ales. It’s not that there aren’t some good ones out there….It’s just that most of them are, well, ordinary.

Not so with ODell Brewing Co’s. St. Lupulin Extra Pale Ale. This seasonal from Ft. Collins, Colo. skillfully crafts a nice – but no where near India pale ale level – amount of hop goodness with a graceful amount of sweet malt.

Think of this beer as a mini-IPA that combines the flavors of an IPA with the drinkability of a pale ale.

St. Lupulin pours a clear, light-ish golden yellow with a short off-white head. The ale’s aroma is of orange citrus with some grapefruit notes. Behind the citrus are notes of sweetish caramel malt.

The brew’s initial flavor is of mild sweet malt. At mid-tongue, the beer takes a moderately hoppy turn, with citrus and floral hop flavors coming to the fore. These hop flavors are very smooth and assert themselves only enough to overtake the malt notes in the flavor profile.

St. Lupulin’s finish is of medium length, ending with a final salute of citrus and floral hop flavors before finally ending with a slight bit of hop astringency.

If you like hoppy beer, but find full-blown IPAs (like ODell’s outstanding IPA) a bit too heavy in the summer, I’d give St. Lupulin a shot. It’s a recommended summer quencher fit for a hophead.

St. Lupulin is listed at 6.5% alcohol by volume and was purchased at the South Sioux City, Nebr., HyVee Wine and Spirits.

-Tim Hynds

Mojo Risin’ Double IPA is an amped up version of the Boulder Beer Company’s Mojo IPA. Big, but well structured, Mojo Risin’ is a very nice, floral balanced dipa.

Mojo Risin’ pours a golden yellow with a tall, off-white head and aromas of bready malt and orange citrus.

The ale’s initial flavor is bready malt with toffee notes. Those flavors turn very sweet and more toffee-like at mid-tongue.

A big wallup of floral and citrus hop flavors hit at mid-tongue, to balance the beer’s sweetness.

Toasty malt flavors intensify at the back of the throat, where the hop flavors turn slightly bitter and piney. The alcohol in the 10% ABV brew shows at the back of the throat, but doesn’t annoy.

Mojo Risin’ has a long, dry finish that is dominated by powerful floral hop flavors that compliment some slightly sweet toasty malt notes.

Double dry hopped with Amarillo hops, Mojo Risin’ is a recommended double IPA. It was purchased at the South Sioux City, Nebr. HyVee Wine and Spirits.

-Tim Hynds

471 Small Batch Double Hopped IPA from Denver’s Breckenridge Brewery is a fine, citrusy double IPA with an unusual dose of peppery spiciness.

Double Hopped IPA pours a clear copper with a tall, off-white head. Its aroma is of  orange citrus (my wife says orange marmalade) with notes of sweet caramel, lemon and grapefruit.

The beer’s initial flavor is of bready malt that immediately segues into a big blast of 70 IBU citrus hop flavors as the beer reaches mid-tongue. That big citrusy hop flavor is nicely balanced with some moderately strong sweet caramel malt flavors.

Double Hopped IPA turns a bit spicy at the back of the throat with the appearance of some pepper and anise notes.

Alcohol in the 9.2% ABV beer shows as a warmth that becomes noticable at mid-tongue and into the beer’s finish. That alcohol warmth does not detract from the brew’s flavor.

That finish is dominated by citrus hop flavors and a continuation of those spicy/peppery flavors. The beer finally fades out on those peppery notes.

471 Small Batch Double Hopped IPA, purchased at the HyVee Wine and Spirits in South Sioux City, Nebr.,  is medium bodied and full flavored. It is recommended as a worthy double IPA.

-Tim Hynds

The Maharaja Imperial IPA from Boulder’s Avery Brewing Co. packs a well-balanced, tasty, big hop wallop.

The Maharaja pours a cloudy orangish-tan with a tall, off-white head that leaves plenty of lacing on the glass. Its aroma is of sweet grapefruit (think ruby red) and citrus.

The imperial IPA’s initial flavor is a blast of sweet, bready malt with distinct caramel undertones.

Those flavors immediately segue into a jolt of citrus flavors as the ale moves from mid-tongue to the back of the throat. Sweet grapefruit flavors dominate with strong notes of both orange and lemon zest.

The hop bitterness in this beer is big, but multi-layered. Those flavors flirt with, but never go astringent. The beer’s malt shows as a seemingly muted caramel sweetness that allows the flavors from its four varieties of hops  to shine.

The Maharaja’s finish is long, with pine and citrus hop flavors dominating.

At 10.27% alcohol by volume and 102 IBUs, The Maharaja is not subtle. It is a big. It is challenging, but it is rewarding. It is also recommended.

The Maharaja Imperial IPA was purchased at the HyVee Wine and Spirits in South Sioux City, Nebraska. According to the label, the bottle I purchased was filled in Feb. 2009.

-Tim Hynds

Boulevard’s Single-Wide IPA is a new, easy-to-drink addition to the Kansas City brewery’s lineup.

Single-Wide pours a slightly cloudy golden yellow with a tall and chunky off-white head. Its aroma is of  pine hops with floral and citrus undernotes.

The IPA’s initial flavor is of bready and toasty malt that then segues  into a mellow sort of citrus hoppiness. That hoppiness increases at mid-tongue to overtake the beer’s malt flavors which then start to turn slightly sweet.

As noted, the beer’s hop flavors do increase at mid-tongue. However, the beer’s  hop flavors do not seem to get especially “big” in the sense of some very citrusy IPAs such as O’Dells or Big Sky’s IPA. This beer is listed on Boulevard’s website as being 59 international bitterness units, but it drinks like a lower IBU beer.

Single-Wide’s hop flavors start to turn piney and floral at the back of the throat, with those flavors starting to break through the beer’s citrusy notes.

Single-Wide has a medium length finish, with the hop flavors turning more floral and then moving towards an ever-so-slight astringency.

The beer finally ends on a pleasant, lingering hop spiciness.

I consider Boulevard Single-Wide IPA to be medium bodied and medium flavored. It is 5.7% alcohol by volume.

Single-Wide was purchased at the Sioux City HyVee Wine and Spirits’ Hamilton Boulevard location.

-Tim Hynds

What’s up with this?

The back label of Bell’s Hopslam Ale states: “A biting, bitter, tongue bruiser of an ale.”

Bah! It is neither biting nor a tongue bruiser. It is, however, a beautifully crafted example of how a brewer can coax the best flavors out of hops.

Brewed by Bell’s Brewery in Comstock Mich., and bottled on Jan. 5, 2009, Hopslam poured a slightly cloudy, golden orange-yellow with a creamy off-white head. The ale’s aroma is of floral and citrus hops with some sweet malt and honey notes.

The initial flavor of Hopslam is sweet malt and light honey that instantly gives way to deep, complex and rich  floral and citrus hop bitterness.

These hop flavors become profound at the side and mid-tongue, but are exceedingly well balanced by the ale’s bready malt favors and ever present notes of honey sweetness. A slight bit of spiciness also shows here. I had a hard time pinning down the exact flavor, but the closest I could come up with would be a very light clove flavor.

It is important to note that this ale is brewed with honey, a fact I believe contributes greatly to this ale’s goodness.

It is the honey flavors that promote an elegant sort of balance in this ale. The sweetness tones down the hops’ bitterness, preventing the beer from going astringent. The honey accomplishes this without drawing undue attention to itself or becoming cloying.

This ale is a mastery of balance. Double/imperial IPAs can easily go out of balance when a brewer shoots for a high international bitterness unit/hoppy beer.  Hopslam is about 60-70 IBU, but has more intense hop flavor without astringency than a lot of beers that claim much higher bitterness.

The alcohol in this 10% ABV brew starts to show as a pleasant warmth at the back of the throat (and continuing to the stomach), but it does not overtake the beer’s flavor profile. Again, balance is the key.

Hopslam finishes long and dry, with its hop flavors turning from overtly citrus to piney with notes of lemon zest. All this is backed with sweet malt and honey notes.

This is a full bodied and full flavored DIPA that is so easy to drink I could easily down more than one of them at a sitting. But I won’t. I need to make this six-pack last a while.

Hopslam Ale is highly recommended. It was purchased at Four Winds International Market in Pensacola, Fl.

-Tim Hynds