Delighted to discover this sitting at Green’s on Ponce, Atlanta, GA, USA. $3.99 for the 500 mL bottle. Attractive bottle and nice green label complete the presentation.
Noisy pour into the shaker pint yelds a bright, clear amber body, soapy head and some lace. Looks very nice.
The label boasts the combination of spring water from the river Otter in Devon (a few miles from my birthpalce and home), English floor malts, their own yeast and whole cone hops from the West Coast of the USA. This leads to a very aromatic nose – grassy freshness.
Quite a dry bitterness which was NOT what I was expecting. There is definitely a USA/UK IPA crossbred beer here. Has some simple, subtle notes of mild hop character that you might expect from an English version, but also plenty of citrus puckering notes from the West Coast. Also an unusual dry element as well. Put it at 6.8% too (a sort of low/high cross), and you have a real new/old school mixture.
Dry ending lingers. Very interesting. The first English/American IPA cross?