House Band IPA

 

          I remember my last trip to Portland, Oregon. While roaming the town seeing the sights, I would also hit the local bars and brewpubs. As a budding beer geek it felt like a waste of a trip to go to Portland and not sample the local beer scene. One day while at the Barley Mill Pub on SE Hawthorne, I decided to have an IPA. I don’t recall the name of the beer but I do recall it was the cloudiest, muddiest beer I’d ever had in my life. Today I wonder if that might have been my first east coast IPA.

Also known as New England IPA or Hazy IPA, the East Coast IPA is basically an unfiltered, hazy looking IPA. Being unfiltered, a Hazy IPA will be slightly hazy to downright cloudy, like a European wheat beer. It’s also not uncommon for these beers to have a tropical, juicy, or otherwise fruit forward hop profile depending on the strains of hops used to make the beer. It’s interesting to note that the New England IPA has recently become an officially recognized beer style by the Craft Beer Association. House Band pours into my glass medium amber in color, and as hazy as any hefeweizen I’ve ever had The head is rocky, white, and decently lasting.

          The aroma House Band offers is as pleasantly and assertively hop forward as an IPA I’ve had so far. It’s citrusy, full of orange pith and very juicy in nature. There’s also something ripe and tropical in there, kind of reminding me of mango. A gentle peppercorn quality provides the nose with an interesting through note. Aromas of coconut provides a balancing softness to the otherwise intense aromas provided by the hops.

          Taking my first sip is….interesting. It’s smooth and pillowy, medium bodied, and well carbonated without being over carbonated. Flavors of coconut and coconut milk seem to take the place of bready, biscuit malts. Specifically, coconut provides a base upon which to build other flavors. As you might expect, those other flavors are hops, hops, and more hops. First up, I get flavors of pine resin which leads into the mouth coating flavors of grapefruit pith. All of this leads to an assertive lingering bitterness.

          Overall, I’m going to give House Band 6.75 out of 10. It’s a very interesting interpretation of the American IPA and is overall pretty enjoyable. The one issue I have with the beer is its flavors of coconut and coconut milk. It adds an almost milky creaminess to the mouthfeel that I think cuts the beer’s final enjoyability. I think a hint of bread, or toasted bread would be a nice way to add to the beer’s flavor. Otherwise, I’m more than happy to enjoy this American style IPA.