Rated 88: Sunshine Chugsuckle by Mothers Brewing

Mother's Brewing Sunshine Chugsuckle is a New England-style India Pale Ale and is being reviewed as a Specialty IPA (BJCP category 21B of the 2015 BJCP Style Guidelines).  New England IPAs (NEIPAs) are newcomers to the widely popular IPA scene.  NEIPAs are known for their fruity hop character (tropical fruit, juicy fruit gum, mangos, etc.), cloudy appearance, and sometimes lower-than-typical IPA bitterness.

This NEIPA has a light golden color with a big, fluffy white head and the expected hazy, opaque appearance. The aroma is exclusively hops with aromatics of lemon, pineapple, and orange with a lighter resinous and dank accent. The body is medium-light with a moderate-light carbonation, and a light astringency. The flavor is predominantly tropical fruit hops of lemons and pineapples. The finish is dry and lightly bitter but with a noticeable astringency. Tropical hops flavors of pineapple, orange and lemon lingering long in the finish.

For the NEIPA style, the appearance of this beer is proper and the hops are appropriately and enjoyably tropical in character. The astringency detracts but the astonishingly low bitterness (12 IBUs per the bottle/15 IBUs per the website) allows the finish to refrain from being too harsh. Just a short trip from New England (just 1400 miles down I-90, I-84, I-80, I-76, I-71, I-70, and finally I-44), this Missouri-bred NEIPA measures up to the emerging IPA trend.