goodness. That’s right, I’m making beer yeast jokes. It’s for your own good, really. Some day you’ll understand. We also tried Big Time’s Baltic Porter. All while perusing the lovely options available to us at Bottleworks. Sheer deliciousness. Today’s selection is from Laurelwood Brewing Company, which has several lovely locations in downtown Portland; it is our second beer from them—the last one was Prevale IPA.Workhorse IPA pours a delicate copper with a minimal white head; the nose is caramel sweetness and breadiness combined with spicy resin hop aroma, although there is something bright to the nose as well. Flavors pretty much follow the nose—we’ve got some caramel and breadiness in the front before giving way to bitterness in the
middle; there is spicy pine and resin hop flavors in the middle as well, leading into the lingering bitter finish. While there is a slight amount of hop grassiness in the finish, overall Workhorse finishes rather clean. The body is medium with a medium to light carbonation that helps accentuate some of the chewiness in the mouthfeel. Workhorse is well-balanced between malt and hops; you could almost say that it falls to the malt side, but the hops do balance out the body, even with the chewy maltiness. Elli likes Hop Monkey IPA (also by Laurelwood) more than Workhorse IPA; I’m torn, as both have their own strengths despite their differences
. In other words, both are winners. Moral of the story: Laurelwood rocks.From the Laurelwood website: “Our biggest seller in the pubs, this is an extremely well balanced yet super flavorful IPA brewed in the West Coast style. The over-the-top aroma comes from a heavy handed dose of hops in the kettle, hop back and 2 separate dry-hop additions. A slightly sweet finish helps balance the hop bitterness and creates an ale that is both big on flavor yet remains quite drinkable.”
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 80
Malt: Great Western 2-row, Great Western C 40, & Briess Carapils
Hops: Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade, & Columbus
(11/22/2010)
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