Vertex IPA

Oh, IPAs – so many out there; so hard to make them stand out. This is an example of another “pretty good” IPA – it has nothing particularly memorable about it, but it’s certainly a fine beer. The beer pours medium-gold in color with a slight haze and a low, white, fluffy head. The initial aromas are all bright citrus (grapefruit) and pine, with a medium-low bready malt in the background as it warms that's perfectly pleasant.

The flavor exhibits medium-high bittering as one would expect, but it is surprisingly low in hop flavor and feels a bit washed out and raw. The grainy malt flavor and bittering dominate the show, and the aftertaste is mostly a touch of warm alcohols. The overall impression is that of a beer that’s a little watery and missing something.

Ultimately, this is an OK IPA, which just doesn’t get it done in today’s IPA-saturated beer marketplace. It needs a bit more “filling out” with some light character malts and hop flavor, but at least there’s nothing “wrong” with the beer that needs correcting.