Full Sail IPA Review

Brewery: Full Sail Brewing Co. | Beer: IPA
Style: English India Pale Ale | ABV: 6.0% | IBUs: 60
Serving Method: 12 oz. bottle poured into pint glass

Founded in 1987 in Hood River Oregon, Full Sail was the first successful retail microbrewery in the Pacific Northwest, helping pave the way for the region to become one of the meccas of beer. Today, Full Sail is still a leader in the craft beer space, ranking as the 18th largest craft brewery in 2010.

While their Amber is the flagship brew, I decided to start off with their IPA, as that's usually a pretty good measure of a West Coast brewery. Unusually, it's an English-style IPA, brewed with two-row pale malt and hopped with Challenger and East Kent hops. Here's how Full Sail describe the finished product:

[A] well-balanced, golden-colored brew that has a crisp hop finish that doesn't bite. With its palate cleansing finish, IPA is a perfect for highly spiced dishes with curry, ginger, garlic or cumin.

Sounds like a refreshing brew, let's dive in.

Appearance: A crystal-clear, golden-amber body capped by two fingers of off-white head that sticks around a while and leaves good lacing.

Aroma: Citrusy and earthy hops over rich, caramel malt. Very much an English style IPA.

Taste: Up front it's mildly bitter, eathy, herbal, and citrusy hops. Underneath, a lightly toasted caramel malt backbone provides plenty of balance. Perhaps a little too balanced if this were an American IPA, but acceptable for the English style. The aftertaste is toasty and just a little juicy.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with sharp carbonation. Dries in the finish.

Drinkability: Full Sail have brewed up a very sessionable IPA here.

Verdict: A decent English style IPA, but to be honest, generally unexciting. If you've never tried an English style IPA, this would be a good way to see what some of the differences are.

Grade: B

Brooklyn East India Pale Ale Review

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery | Beer: East India Pale Ale
Style: English India Pale Ale | ABV: 6.9%
Serving Method: 12 oz. bottle poured into pint glass

When I first started getting into the world of beer, Stout was my favorite style. While looking up new Stouts to try, I kept running into massive praise for Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout, but it simply wasn't available in the Houston area. Much to my surprise, Brooklyn beers started showing up here a few months ago. Unfortunately, Black Chocolate Stout was not amongst the few varieties that made it down here in the first wave.

What did make it's way down was their India Pale Ale, Brown Ale, Lager, and Local 1 (a Belgian Strong Pale Ale). As IPAs are one of my favorite styles, I decided to start with their attempt. After so much waiting, this is the first Brooklyn beer I've had the pleasure to try, and I'm very much looking forward to diving in.

But first, perhaps we should pay attention to the beer at hand. Brooklyn devised this beer in the more traditional English style of IPA, rather than the American style that dominates here today. Considerably more mellow than the hop-bombs we've started to crank out here in America during recent years, the English style is closer to what actually made it to India all those years ago, a hoppier and maltier version of the normal Pale Ale, designed to make the arduous journey without spoiling like a weaker beer.

Brooklyn describe the beer as a "deep golden beer brewed from British malt and a blend of hops featuring the choice East Kent Golding variety. It is traditionally dry-hopped for a bright aroma of hops, lemongrass, pine and citrus fruit, and has a robust bitterness, a warming malt palate and a clean hoppy finish."

Appearance: Crystal clear and bubbly pale golden-amber body. Pours a rather large and bubbly white head that quickly melts into a solid finger, leaving good lacing all the way down.

Aroma: Sweet caramel malt with some clean, floral, and perfumey hops and some sweet fruit. A few notes of apple cider. It's all pleasant enough, but as this is an IPA, I was expecting a lot more from the hops.

Taste: Grassy and bitter (not a normal hop bitterness) with a weird metallic taste. There's a solid lightly roasted malt backbone that tends to overshadow the hops, which is odd for an IPA. The alcohol is always present, I'd like to see it hidden a little better. To be frank, this is a confusing beer.

Mouthfeel: A solid medium body with moderately-high carbonation.

Drinkability: This would be quite sessionable, if it weren't for the alcohol being so prominent.

Verdict: Seems much more like an English Pale Ale, than an English IPA, to me. Even then, there are a lot of problems with this beer. I'm not deterred in my quest to sample the rest of the Brooklyn line, but perhaps becoming a little anxious.

Grade: C