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Arcadia IPA, Prove Your Worth

March 8th, 2008

Arcadia Brewing Company currently has two spots on my beer shelf. One slot was filled by their IPA. Arcadia is known for brewing English-style ales with an American twist, but I hadn’t yet tried this one. Keeping OpSec in mind, let’s just say that the beer needs to really step up and deliver to keep its spot.

My tasting notes and verdict after the jump.

According to Arcadia’s handy-dandy packaging codes, I can determine that I have a bottle of IPA that was packaged on 19 November 2007. Granted, to get the packaging codes, you have to visit the website, navigate to the “Ales” page and then click the link. Maybe I just suck at the internet, but I cannot seem to find the exact path to the file.

But I digress. This is a beer review.

Appearance: Pours a golden amber with a short-lived head that leaves some solid lacing on the top of the glass. A tiny stream of active carbonation streams up from the center, but this could be a function of pouring into a Chimay goblet.

Smell: Earthy and subtle citrus aromas in the front, with some biscuity malt in the background.

Taste: Sharp lemony/grapefruit citrus bite in the, well, in the vast majority of the sip. The finish is very long and reveals a touch of malt, which slightly dulls the hop bite. Overall, very dry.

Mouthfeel: The very active carbonation in this beer helps disprese the flavors across the tongue. It also creates a very light to slightly medium-bodied beer. Not too filling, although it is rather belch-inducing. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. You could easily session this beer. It clocks in a bit under 6% abv, so you’d have to be a big nancy-boy to not handle it.

I’m going to pair this with burgers, green beans and tots later, but I think this would be a great candidate for any spicy dish as well. We have some random bag of frozen Thai stir fry veggies that I may cook up tomorrow to see how this beer stands up to a peanut sauce curry type situation. IBUs vs. Scoville. It’ll be epic.

My overall grade for this beer is a B+. There are plenty of IPAs that I prefer, largely based on choice of hop varietals. This one uses Columbus hops, which are great and tasty, but I’m really a fan of the Amarillo. With such a wide range of IPAs and double IPAs and whatnot to choose from, it’s tough to love them all.

Arcadia has a nifty assortment of brews, but I think I’ll keep the IPA around. It just means that its sibling is going to the chopping block . . . maybe.

Entry Filed under: Beer