Bomber Brewing Company / Stone Brewing Company Blood From A Stone Red Rye IPA American IPA at 6.8% ABV (C$8.29 at Willow Park Wine & Spirits, 650 ml, no bottle date or best before)
Pours clear medium amber with two fingers of rocky light beige head, excellent retention and lacing. (5/5) Nose is sourdough, toasted malt, caramel, pithy grapefruit, pine resin, slight buttery diacetyl. (7/10) Taste is moderate sweet, moderate bitter, mild to moderate sour. (7/10) Medium body, moderate sustained carbonation, off-dry lingering and building bitter finish. (4/5)
A decent rye IPA. In my ever-so-humble opinion, there’s always a bit of a tightrope act required with this style: generally speaking, you want enough malt sweetness to keep the rye sourness from becoming overwhelming, but not so much that you end up completely overshadowing the hop bitterness. In this case, there’s a nicely-pronounced rye edge, and the caramel malt actually isn’t overly pronounced. The problem is that the hops don’t seem to be keeping up their end of the deal, and are just a bit on the muted side – not enough to wreck the beer, but enough to make it a little less bright than I’d like to see it. (14/20)
7.5/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
