hop character | Brewerianimelogs (Anime and Beer Lore)

Rating: 4.25/5

Maiden The Shade by Ninkasi Brewing is 6.8% ABV Specialty India Pale Ale

Label:
In salute to the playful side of summer, we had fun with this beer! Maiden the Shade has a big robust hop character from the liberal use of 7 different varieties of hops. It s completed with a light colored malt backbone to stay in balance. Kick back and enjoy!
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This is the first Ninkasi beer I have ever tried. Recently Ninkasi started to show up locally at a very prominent rate. They bring forth some interesting sound beers. I will try and review a couple as I come across them. For now, I picked this one up because back in 2010 I had remembered this label. It was a beer that had the Iron Maiden font and and while it may no be the Iron Maiden beer which came out earlier this year, it has some interesting influences.

Aromas are of floral,herbal and piney hops, peppercorn hints, tropical fruit like pineapple, mango, kiwi, grapefruit, citrus, honey and biscuit bread

The flavors are of citrus, flowers, grapefruit, piney and grassy hops, passion fruit, mango, pineapple, kiwi, biscuit, peppercorn hints, biscuit bread, caramel notes and peach notes.

Aftertaste is tropical sweet with a bit of hoppy bitterness. Quite the refreshing IPA and easy to moderate drinkability

Overall this is a very good IPA. This IPA bring out floral and tropical notes from the range of hop flavor spectrum. Those that enjoy these aspects as well as a nice dose of bitterness will enjoy this one. Quite the interesting first review for one of the Ninkasi beers. Very good stuff.

Rating: 3.8/5

Galactic Imperial Red by Hopworks Urban Brewery is a 9.5%ABV Imperial Amber/Red Ale coming in at 100+ IBU

Label:
Hopworks Galactic Imperial Red; One small sip for man, one giant bottle for mankind. Robust caramel malt flavors battle NW Centennial, Cascade, Magnum and Nugget hops for interstellar supremacy. Throw down your quarters before it’s game over.
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Galaga fans will remember the similarities of this bottle’s beer label. This beer is an organic made beer using organic ingredients.

Aromas of this beer are of piney and grassy hops, citrus, rich caramel, toffee and biscuits.

Flavors are of Caramel, citrus, slight grapefruit, grassy and piney hops, toffee, biscuit bread, maple, slight peppercorn, earthy and metallic hop notes, oranges and herbal bitterness

The alcohol is somewhat noticeable in this one. I think it gets better as you drink more of it but in the beginning it wasn’t overly impressive. I think the hop character over powers the rest of the beer but some may find this appealing. I like more tropical hop characters but these are more herbal to explain what I mean. The balance is somewhat impartial. You get more hop than malt but that is not too bad at at all. While overall this is still a very good beer, there are other ambers that do more wonders. Still worth the try for sure if you love ambers.