OK, it is Imperial Pale Ale. Owner Brian Titus was not sure he wanted to be thought of as copying Propeller (heaven forbid two breweries can use the proper style descriptor - we are not counting Keith's whose use of IPA borders on criminal, or criminally insane, or just plain silly, like calling ordinary green peppers habaneros) and did not want to use the term IPA. Brewer Greg Nash knows that it is an India Pale Ale, but seeing as his would be a quite extreme version, the ImPA thing was conceived.
The beer in its first iteration, is now all gone, and batch 2 is available. The first bottling was pretty darn good stuff. Malt hop balance with some straw dry hopping, and quite bitter hopping in the mid palate. The finish was a bit rough, but time rounded it off. Heck, given the Canadian IPA wilderness, I'd say it belongs in that category.
The second batch is bigger, more hops, more malt, more alcohol. And it is unfiltered - Greg hints that the filtering system at the brewery is quite efficient at stripping away some things he wanted in the beer. Note the label to the right. At 6.9% abv it is probably big enough in that regard. The hopping here, combined with the residual flavours from fresh fermenting yeast, tends to create a "young beer" character that may be a bit harsh right now, but after a couple of weeks in the bottle, should be sublime.
Greg advises that some tweaks are still in the mill for the next batch, can it get better? Maybe, perhaps for my palate with more malt to balance the hops, and some berry fruit esters, but right now it is the most extreme beer ever bottled commercially in modern times in Nova Scotia. Something to try for any beer lover.
2 comments:
Update on the first batch. Tonight the beer, with some time in bottle, has acquired some balance and shows very good integrated malt/hop balance. Magnum hops? So say the geeks....
The beer is now Cascade plus Amarillo. With the hop shortage, you take what you can get.
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