Judge's Review: 86 Rating - Tube City IPA by Coronado Brewing Co.

Tube City IPA by Coronado Brewing Co. is being judged as a Double IPA according to the 2015 Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Category 22A. Unfortunately, the alcohol heat dominates this beer and diminishes the impression of the hop character, which greatly interferes with drinkability. It does this by stripping away a modern hop character I anticipate from Simcoe and Mosaic hops and leaves pine, resin and bitterness.

I don’t normally start evaluating a beer by its appearance but this Double IPA is a vibrant golden color that truly glows despite its slight lack of clarity and unremarkable, creamy, persisting along the rim off-white head. I just keep staring at it because it looks good.

The aroma starts with dried mango and fresh pineapple juice that integrated well with warm baked bread malt character followed by a firm backbone of fresh pine sap resin and persistent fusel alcohol.

The flavor starts out with bitter and pine resin hops balanced by hop resin-coated crackers. The high hop bitterness continues into the finish until it is overpowered by an ever-present strong vodka-like alcohol note in the aftertaste. The harsh alcohol character only increases over time. The issue for me is the lingering fusel and hot alcohol aroma and flavor followed by a mouth-coating heat and drying back-of-palate mouthfeel that thins out the body.