Friday, August 18, 2006

Pint Night 08/17/06 Goose Island - IPA


Pint night, August 17 2006 Goose Island - India Pale Ale
Description from www.gooseisland.com:
Our hop-lover's classic ale
Our IPA recalls a time when ales shipped from England to India were highly hopped to preserve their distinct taste during the long journey. The result, quite simply a hop lover's dream. And this classic ale adds a fruity aroma, set off by a dry malt middle, to ensure that the long hop finish is one you'll remember.

4 comments:

AsianSteev said...

the glasses say "Honker's Ale," i know, but this was indeed IPA (here's hoping someone got fired over that blunder).
Goose Island holds a special place in my heart, because back before i loved beer as i do so now, i was a soda lover (and actually still am). Goose Island Orange Cream is the best Orange Cream Soda in, i'd say, existence. it wasn't until i was an already established fan of Goose Island sodas that i even discovered their line of beers.
so forgive me if i'm a little biased.
IPA smells sweet and fruity. it has a surprisingly thick and frothy head, and it tastes... well, it tastes like flowers. usually this would mean bad news for my taste buds (ala that rosy German chocolate you can get in the international section at Meijer), but this beer is pleasantly smooth, and the flowery taste is strong, but not unbearably so.
Patty Boom Batty informed me later in the pint night that the flowery taste is the hops. learning. neat.
and then there's the Simpsons episode where Bart becomes Burns' heir. Burns has surveillance of the entire city of Springfield, and we find Homer in the bathroom eating flowers. i wish i could tell Homer about Goose Island IPA. it's not bad beer, and it tastes like flowers.
also it was cheap.
i rate it 7/10, maybe a 6 if i didn't love Goose Island so much.

Dr. C said...

I agree with Steve about the glasses. It was a travesty that we had to drink IPA out of a Honker's Ale glass. At least it was from the same brewery. The head, as Steve mentioned, was tall and frothy. It was pretty bitter. IPA had a very nice aroma. To me it smelled kind of citrusy. The beer itself wasn't bitter at all. The taste was somewhat curious. It was very floral and smooth. There was a slight bite to it at the beginning that mellowed out during the finish. Instead of a number, I will give this beer a rating of Drunkable. And no, that is not a typo. It is Drunkable, not Drinkable. This shall be a rating that means it is something I could drink quite a bit of before getting tired of it, thus I could get drunk with this beer.

Unknown said...

So I was interested in the correlation between IPA and India itself. I found that the India in India Pale Ale wasn't just a killer marketing stragedy (because we all know that anything Indian is awesome).
I found that there had, in fact, been an Indian brewery in alliance with the British brewers - called the British East India Company. It began with a demand for beer by British troops in India, and yada yada yada...let's get to the taste.
In my research, I found that the reason for IPA's bitterness and high alcohol content is due bacteria.
The big challenge in this cross-continental market was the heat; and since this beer was birthed in a time before refrigeration, the only way brewers could fight off evil microbes was to up the alcohol content (because bacteria is apperently straightxedge). This increase in alcohol content created a bitter and, in the words of Dr.C drunkable beer.
El Fin.

Patrick Smith said...

First, let me say that I am a huge Goose Island fan... Summertime and 312 are both in my top 10 favorite brews, so I was excited about this Pint Night.That being said, I was a little disappointed with Goose Island's vision of the IPA. The flavors were too potent - too much flower, too much bitter, too much everything. This, combined with the thicker-than-usual body of the beer made me feel like I was trying to drink a potporri milkshake with every swig from the glass. However, after a couple of pints my taste buds seemed to adjust and I could actually taste something besides a field of tulips, I enjoyed this beer immensely.
My advice is this - if you're going to go out for a night of drinking, don't start with Goose Island IPA... you'll get tired of it and end up wasting the stuff. Have a few light, easy beers to start with, and then move on to this flowery concoction.

Overall 5/10