Lips Of Faith - BELGO Belgian India Pale Ale
Belgo pours a deep copper, think apple juice, also think apple juice because this beer has insane clarity. A nice frothy white head with sparse lacing and a higher than usual level of carbonation as evidenced by the nucleation point on my New Belgium globe. Smells like a belgian to me, tons of Belgian yeast notes and spicy esters, malty and big citrus notes. The first sip is sweet bready, biscuity malt backbone with spicey, estery, bananay notes provided by the yeast strain, in balance with that are a plethora of hops providing pine, fruitiness and warming alcohol on the way down. For an IPA with a 5 hop blend I was expecting the hops to gang up on the yeast a little more, there are undeniable bittering notes from Chinook and Simcoe and Amarillo provide a mid pallet fruit burst but surrounding all of that is the spiciness of the yeast. This took a little getting over but it's interesting to tease all of those flavors out individually to see how they work in unison. Overall a great Belgian style IPA, it's like a supercharged Ranger on Belgian yeast. At the same time it's not my favorite beer for the style.