Kennebunkport IPA
Poured from a 12 oz. brown bottle into a pint glass. Found in a 6 pack at Trader Joe's. A: Lovely hazy copper colored brew with some amber tinges. Pours with an inch or so of frothy/creamy off-white head that leaves some sticky lacing sheets towards the top of the glass. Plenty of fast-rising carbonation bubbles appear with the pour and don't seem to fade. S: This is trying to have a nice hop scent, but there's an off key medicinal quality to it. I can get a bit of deep citrus and pine along with some sugary caramel malts, but the whole bouquet is masked by an out-of-place chemical bitterness. After warming a bit, it smells more and more like grain alcohol mixed in with the hops/malts, with a faint biscuit/buttery scent. T: This tastes surprisingly better than it smells, thankfully. It starts with a soft maltiness, a tad sweet but not too much. The middle lets some hoppy tastes mix in, mostly faint citrus and some leafy floral/pine flavors. The finish has the bitterness fading out and letting the citrus and floral tastes mix with a plain malty and biscuity flavor. Overall, it's fine, but there's the same odd chemical-ness to it that the smell has, as well. M: Okay, but a bit watery and bitter in a strange way. D: Not bad, really. Easy enough to drink.