Icy Bay IPA - Alaskan Brewing Co. Review
We launched our space hop session with one Alaskan Brewing beer and we thought it best to land safely with another. The Icy Bay IPA pays homage to wild surfers of the Alaskan coast and the original IPAs that were packed with hops (and boldness) to survive long journeys from England to India.
Alaskan starts the Icy Bay IPA with glacier-fed water from the Juneau Ice Fields, and if that wasn’t enough, they added premium 2-row and specialty malt, and Cascade, Bravo, Calypso, Summit, and Apollo hops. This results in 6.2% ABV and 65 IBUs.
Alaskan characterizes an IPA “by intense hop flavor and aroma accompanied with medium maltiness and body while also being crisp and dry.”
Sounds good to me. Let’s see how they met the task in our…
First Impressions:
On the Eyes--Golden with a slight amber tint. It is clear and forms a roughly two-finger head that maintained quite well throughout sipping, but produced little lacing.
On the Nose--The Cascade hops jump out at me, as they are known to do, and bring some great citrus and floral notes. It’s not overly fruity, but inviting.
On the Palate--It comes as no surprise that this one is full of a lot of zesty grapefruit. It has a classic IPA flavor with a healthy dose of bitterness, which is no surprise considering the high alpha-acid levels of the Bravo, Summit, and Apollo hops. The Apollo hops are known for grapefruit flavor, and when mixed with the Cascade a great depth of citrus is created. I also get some floral notes from the Cascade, and hiding behind all of that is a hint of fruity sweetness, likely slipped in from the Calypso hops. And in addition to all that I got some nice herbal and spice notes from the Summit hops.
Verdict
This is a very complete and aggressive beer. We came looking for Apollo hops, and we certainly found their bitter grapefruit quality meshing nicely with the floral grapefruit flavors of the Cascade hop and the lighter, sweeter notes from the Calypso. This tastes like a classic IPA to me, and Alaskan Brewing has put in a lot of effort to make this one stand on its own along the cold coast of Alaska. If you’re looking for classic IPA flavor, here it is.
Cheers!
Mr. Brew