Bad Elf is brewed in the UK by the Ridgeway Brewery. This ale made the news in 2005 when the state of Connecticut tried to ban its sale because they claimed the label appealed to children. Luckily, we’re not quite that uptight here in Iowa, so I was able to get some of this for […]

This would be a really great beer if it were a Pale Ale. As an IPA, it lacks pop.Everything is muted, the nose, the hops, the malt. It’s not a bad beer, just not what I’m looking for in an IPA.

So far I’ve been pleased with all of the brews I’ve tried from New Holland Brewery. The Mad Hatter IPA is an orangey-amber color with a foamy tan head. It’s very cloudy. It’s not just cloudy from yeast suspension, but because there are a lot of floaty chunks in it. BIG floaty chunks. I’m not […]

Red Hook are generally consistently good, but not great beers. The IPA follows that tradition. It pours a nice golden amber with a long lasting frothy head. The nose brings strong hints of pine. The hops and malts are well balanced, and the finish leaves slight hoppy aftertaste. I like my IPAs to […]

It’s an AB product. However, I was curious as I don’t think I’ve ever drank an organic beer.
The nose has a strong medicinal note. That’s not a good thing. It doesn’t really taste like an IPA. That probably isn’t surprising given who brewed it. Neither the malt nor the hops pop in this beer. The […]

Quite simply, it’s probably the best IPA brewed in the USA. It pours a pretty dark amber color. The nose is a perfect balance of malt and piney hops. Likewise, the taste is perfectly balanced. It’s very aggressively hopped, however it is offset by a surprising maltiness. It is 9% ABV, and the alcohol bite […]

This American IPA, from Bell’s Brewery in Michigan, is one of the better IPAs I’ve had in a very long time. It pours a dark straw color with a almost frothy head that hangs around for a few minutes before reducing to a thin lacing that sticks around until you are done. The nose is […]

Another quality brew from Summit.
This IPA is a nice amber color with a creamy tan head that lasts. It’s flavor is more malty than most IPAs and it’s also more full-bodied. It still has the strong bitterness that is typical of an IPA, but it’s not overwhelming, and the smooth creaminess is a nice […]

Goose Island’s India Pale Ale is a cloudy yellowish amber color with a thin white head. It has a very strong hop aroma. If you’ve ever been on a brewery tour and been through a hop storage room, you know the somewhat overwhelming smell that a large quantity of fresh hops produces. That’s what this […]

As I said before, El Bait Shop has 105 beers on tap. They have a huge selection of American microbrews, but also have English, German, and Belgian beers, too. Particularly impressive was that they had maybe 10 or 12 beers from Rogue Ales on tap. Their selection of bottled beers has even more international beers […]