Today I bring you an IPA from New England's Harpoon Brewery. I say New England because they have a brewery in Vermont and another in Boston. They have been in business since 1986 and are generally well regarded in the beer world. Their website is harpoonbrewery.com if you're interested in finding out more.
This is the second beer I have from Harpoon and I can't say the first one was a good experience. That was the Hefeweizen from their UFO line (Harpoon's UnFiltered Offerings), which I reviewed here. When I saw this IPA on the shelf of a Publix supermarket in Pembroke Pines, I knew I had found the right beer to give Harpoon a shot at redemption.
The Harpoon IPA is a 5.9% abv beer that has been brewed since 1993. It pours a copperish, light-amber color and gives a good chubby finger of head, although it receedes more than one would expect from a good IPA and leaves only scant lacing when all is said and done.
It smells of lovely hop, piney and floral, with malt underneath. It is not a strong nose at all but it is indeed appealing.
Then I taste it and everything changes.
WTF? This is an IPA? The hop flavor is there but it just kind of cruises by your tongue and waves. There is a solid malt backbone to hold things together but the lack of strong flavor, any flavor, jumping out is sad. No hoppy finish, no hop oil, no resin, no kick, nothing to remember it by. Ok, yeah, it is slightly hoppy on the finish but nowhere near enough.
On top of all that, it's thin! Easy to drink but thin and flavorless. Disappointing. And if that wasn't all bad enough, there is this odd, almost rubbing alcohol smell that developes and rises about halfway through the beer as it gets warmer. Never seen that happen before. Strange.
For these who think I'm slamming this beer as a total crap, think again. This beer is pretty well-made and is miles ahead of any BudMillerCoors product. The problem is that I bought it expecting an IPA, American style, strong and heavily hopped and that is not what this beer is. Compared to a standard American (specially a west coast) IPA this brew just has nothing going on. It is lame and tame just compared to my previously reviewed IPAs from Avery and Stone.
The thing is that, from what the Harpoon website says, this beer isn't meant to be like the standard American IPA fare. "Harpoon IPA is an interpretation of the classic English style using hops and malt grown in the United States." Ahh, that makes sense. Maybe in my ignorance I judged it too harshly. Also, Beeradvocate.com gives it a B out of 800+ reviews. So maybe this is what an IPA was originally like, before American brewers hopped the hell out of it. I can live with that.
So, taking all that into consideration I'll call this a Glass 1/2 FULL beer. It's not the best beer out there and the flavors could use a little more punch but it's obviously a quality brew. Just don't expect a super-hopped American IPA and you might just enjoy it. Try one for yourself and let me know. Cheers!
Yeah I agree with you. I WISH I liked this beer more. It's on tap everywhere here alongside Bud/Miller/Coors so it's definitely the best offering. But still weak and disappointing. I like my IPAs with more punch. But that does make sense; not being the "typical" IPA style of these days. Good review!
ReplyDelete