Lagunitas IPA Beer Review

Recently I have decided to branch out from my original vision of organizing the Beer Club and get into a more general appreciation of beer. To that end I have decided to begin reviewing beers as I drink them, this has the added benefit of giving me one more reason to drink new beers. With that out of the way, I bring you the first ever Beer Club Beer Review (BCBR).

Lagunitas IPA

Lagunitas claims their IPA is many things including beer, "homicidally hoppy" and "doggone good". Most of the time when I think of homicidal levels of hops I think of Surly, and I think about sipping a beer that burns off the skin in my mouth. There is a group of people in the beer world who believe that a beer can not have too many hops and that if you can't handle it then too bad.

Turns out that Lagunitas is not one of these brewries. For all the threats of "raging hop character" I found this beer surprisingly easy to drink, especially for an IPA. There is some hop bitternes, but pleasant and well balanced. This should not come as too much of a shock when you learn that they blended 43 hops and 65 malts. Personally, I didn't know there were 43 different kinds of hops. So, where did all the hops go?

The first time I tried this I was really struck by how the "other" hop flavors came through in the beer. They seem to come through as more of a floral or citrius flavor - not just bitterness. Normally, these are two things that I hate in a beer, but when juxtaposed with the dry bitter/ hoppy start it works perfectly. Gave me a whole new appreciation for the art of blending hops. This is definitely up there on my list of favorite IPAs right now, and one that I would love to pit head to head against something like Rush River's Bubble Jack...

Final Verdict: This is a great choice if you are looking for a flavorful IPA that you can savor with out a beer chaser.

Please stay tuned for more Beer Club Beer Reviews.

Tyler