Weekend Vibes IPA

 

          Today’s review puts me well into my second full month of reviewing beer from around the world. One of the more persistent challenges in finding beer to review is picking something that isn’t an American style of IPA. American IPAs seem to dominate the shelves of my local liquor stores. And to make matters worse, the American IPA has splintered into its own substyles, specifically the west coast IPA and the New England IPA. For me, the challenge is evaluating an IPA like Weekend Vibes by the right criteria, as there are differences between the two types of IPA.

Both styles of beer use lots of hops, but the west coast uses them at the start of the boil, extracting their bittering power. New England IPAs use their hops towards the end of the boil, extracting more flavor and aroma rather than a more intense bitterness. West coast IPAs tend to have a distinctly citrus, grapefruit, pine needle hop profile. New England on the other hand, has a softer, juicier hop profile, which some drinkers would describe as being more “accessible.” Weekend Vibes pours into my glass only slightly hazy and pale straw in color. Minimal carbonation supports a cloudy, bone white head with good retention.

          As I hold Weekend Vibes to my nose, I’m confronted with an assertive, borderline aggressive, yet pleasant hop aroma. Weekend Vibes’ aroma is a fairly seamless blend of bready, soda cracker malts and hops from the pacific northwest. The aroma’s hop profile starts off with a base of pine resin mixed with notes of lemon. All of this leads into a finish that is kind of earthy with maybe just a hint of what could be caramel as well.

          On the tongue, Weekend Vibes starts medium bodied and initially sweet. It seems malty, toasted bread and demarara sugar balanced with soda cracker and a vaguely herbal quality. Flavors build towards a somewhat spicy center before leading into a big hop finish. The flavor profile on the hops has a much more woodier quality than what they provided in the aroma, which I’m finding more enjoyable. Somehow, that woody quality lends character to the beer.

          Overall, I’m giving Weekend Vibes an 8 out of 10. I’m finding this to be a very respectable IPA in that it’s flavorful and has a decent character. The malt profile is present without being so intense as to make this beer hard to drink. And I can say the same thing about the hop profile. Weekend Vibes’ hop profile is outright assertive without being so aggressive as to be hard to drink. I think this would be a really good balance to creamy soups or any slightly fatty dish like fish and chips.