175a. Mt. Carmel India Pale Ale

Mt. Carmel Brewing Company is located in Cincinnati, OH, and more specifically at 4362 Mt. Carmel-Tobasco Road in Cincinnati. Speaking for both of us, we’re pretty glad they decided against utilizing both the names from their road in the beer. While they’re not in the Over-the-Rhine area in downtown Cincinnati (which was where I was for Bockfest), they’re still part of Cincinnati’s current brewing revival.

Mt. Carmel IPA has a sweet bready nose mixed with brown sugar aromas and no hop smell; it pours a cloudy copper with very little head. The front is sweet caramel, moving into bready and biscuity malt with fruit and raisin notes; sugary sweetness carries the beer from beginning through the finish, despite the somewhat dry biscuit malt in the middle and end. There is some slight hop bitterness at the finish, but not enough to balance the syrupy malt flavors. Mt. Carmel IPA has a soft, syrupy mouthfeel that is both under-carbonated and sticky; if it were drier, it would be an O.K. British IPA, but as it stands it is not very well crafted, and Elli wouldn’t drink it again. Which means that I am giving it a wide berth.

From the bottle: “Orange in color. Entering with a pine hop aroma, followed by a rich malty body with hints of sweet biscuit. Leaving with a lasting spicy hop finish.”

The website had pictures of the labels, but no information about the different styles that I could find. Maybe next time...

ABV: 7.0%
IBU: 56
OG: 1.066

(12/22/2009)