Lone Bison IPA

  One of the challenges of reviewing beer is finding styles that aren’t an American style IPA. Admittedly, it’s kind of a fun challenge to saddle myself with. I’m more of a fan of the English version of most beers, but the American IPA can be kind of fun sometimes. Specifically, I like the variety with which an American IPA’s hop profile can express itself. On the one hand, the hop profile can be citrusy, with flavors of pine needle. On the other hand, they can be ripe, juicy, and tropical in nature.

American IPAs sometimes lend themselves to a sort of innovation well suited to the innovative nature of craft brewing. And even without the use of strange, innovative ingredients the American IPA can be a solid and delicious beer for any craft beer lover to enjoy. Lone Bison IPA is an example of an IPA meant to be a standard, solid example of the style. It doesn’t use a dozen different malts and hops the way other brands have done. The brewery didn’t spend an hour and a half adding batch after batch of hops to the boil.

Rather, Lone Bison IPA seems to be billed as simply being an IPA. And as long as a brand is a good beer, simply being an IPA can be a good thing for any beer to be. Lone Bison fills my glass slightly hazy, and a burnished copper color. The head is packed, slightly rocky, and cream colored.

Taking a sniff, Lone Bison’s aroma is pleasantly hop forward. From the hops I get aromas of grapefruit pith and hints of pine needle. The bready aroma of pale malts lend support, giving a platform for the rest of this IPA’s aromas. Right about then I pick up just a little bit of caramel, providing hints of sweetness before leading into the beer’s finish. As expected, citrus and pine needle return to finish the set, showing pleasant subtlety instead of the usual bold assertiveness.

Lone Bison IPA is medium bodied, enjoying a gentle carbonation. Lone Bison’s enjoys up front flavors of caramel mixed with freshly risen bread dough and hints of mineral. These flavors combine and build towards a rounded center, before moving on to an assertively hoppy finish. The finish is exactly as hoppy and bitter as it needs to be, given the style. Again I get citrus and grapefruit pith. Then there’s just a bit of peppercorn bitterness before it all fades into the next sip.

Overall, Lone Bison IPA is worth 7.5 out of 10. It’s tasty, balanced, and bitter. The bitter finish is assertive without overpowering. All the other flavors compliment each other nicely, giving a beer that is an overall decent example of the style.