Brazos Valley Brewing Co. B-Sides and Rarities End of the Line Simcoe IPA American IPA at 6.5% ABV | 58 IBU (US$2.52 at Specs Main Houston, 355 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 3-Mar-2018, reviewed 12-Mar-2018)
Appearance: slightly hazy pale amber with one finger of loose white head diminishing rapidly to a thin cap, moderate lacing. (3/5) Aroma: tropical fruit, pale malt, citrus. (8/10) Taste: moderate sweet tending slightly high, moderate-high bitter. (7/10) Palate: medium slightly sticky body, moderate carbonation, off-dry medium bitter finish. (4/5)
This is a decent implementation of Simcoe, with absolutely none of the cattiness that so easily accompanies this hop. They don’t actually say it’s a single hop, and I can’t find any brewer notes, so I’m a bit unclear there – though it wouldn’t surprise me if there were some other starts-with-C-hops in the mix. No dates anywhere on the can, but the hops seems reasonably bright so I’m guessing this is fairly fresh. (Update: according to their web site, it’s a February release, so, yup.) Although the aroma is fairly bright hops and clean malt, I find it just a touch sweet on the tongue. This lingers as a slight stickiness into the finish, making me disinclined to reach for another. Good, not great. (15/20)
7.5/10 #ryansbooze ryansbooze.com
