Shipyard IPA, Shipyard Brewery, Portland ME

Well, studying is only so much fun. Let's deviate from our beer lessons with wild abandon and take a look at another IPA, the Shipyard IPA...

And just so we don't loose all of our geekiness, IPA (India Pale Ale) is a beer from the 17th Century and was developed with the beer trading between Britain and India. American IPA's tend to be more extreme with their hoppiness. Okay, more about that in a later beer lesson, let's drink...

The Shipyard IPA pours a mellow amber with a creamy head.

The smell is of mild hop, not too florally. It has a little spicy aroma to it.

The taste is quite mellow and mild. It's a little on the bitter side, but nothing extreme here. It is crisp and refreshing. I think it goes well with the fall weather outside, which feels the same. From their website, I learned that this is a single hop beer (made with Fuggles hop, which is a traditional English hop). So, that explains it's balanced character. It is a medium body and fairly smooth.

The aftertaste is mild hop and slightly bitter, but dissipates quickly.

So, if you are a reader of this blog, you will notice that I try not to pass judgement on ranking beers. I am tempted at times, but I think it is important that all beers, like everything, have different purposes and different intents. Some align with my taste, some don't. What I am interested in, is understanding the intent of the beer along with it's history. So, I will continue to try to be as impartial as I can....but I do have my favorites!

Shipyard is available all around the Northeast in beer stores and bars. The gift shop at the brewery in Portland, Maine is massive and they have their beers available with lots of other swag. On an interesting note, I did find Shipyard's Pumpkinhead beer out here on the West coast last week and will blog about that in the upcoming days.

Cheers!