Well Samuel Smith, I see we face each other once again--same name but different Ale. I accept your challenge, just don't hit the face. I might be getting ahead of myself, but after tasting this I think I'm going to just buy all Samuel Smith products and use them as my base. They aren't exquisite and mind blasting, but it's great quality and comparing this beer to the others gives me a better gauge than using BMC (remember Budweiser, Miller's, and Coors?). Okay so let's get this done with because I have a 60 minute IPA by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and from what I heard it's the bees' knees. Plus it was recommended to me by a good friend who says that it is one of his holy grail beers to try. So Sammy Smith, you're my base and tonight, Dogfish will test my gauge.
Appearance
So the picture might not do too much justice because the lighting is bad, but hey, I'm not a photographer! Give me a break. Anyway, as you can see there's a really golden/amber color to it. It was smooth and glassy and really exquisite looking but the head went away too fast. The head came out about an inch thick, maybe a little more, but crumbled away after ten seconds (I know this because I put a timer on my camera so I wouldn't shake it and blur the picture). I don't get enticed by golden beers like I do with dark ales, but I do appreciate the color and texture and I stare in awe like a painting that strikes my interest. My mouth doesn't water as much as my mind begins to wander and my imagination takes me into the brownish orange liquid. The label says, "...characterised by the colour of a golden sunset...," sure whatever you say boss--not really. Okay this is getting stupid, moving on!
Smell
The smell was light; nothing overpowering. I am not sure if I'm on the right track with smelling beer. I invigorate the aromas (look at me with those words!) but I don't get as much. I don't know if my sense of smell is off or if most of the beers have light smells. Well, either way, there was a hoppy smell and that's about it. A bitter bread kind of smell. That's all I can say about that.
Taste
Bingo--the taste of an Indian Pale Ale. Strong flavors that included hopps and grain sugars. By that I mean a bigger amount of bitter than other beers and there's a presence of grain, something like rice or wheat bread. There's nothing special about it like a fruit taste or a nutty taste. It tastes like strong beer without weird impurities that a lot of commercial beers (BMC) have; such as, a metallic or skunky taste (skunky means it's old beer which tastes stale, flat, and a little rotten. If you want to find out what skunky tastes like, find a dusty forty ounce at the liquor store that has a clear glass bottle, they're usually skunked beers) or basically piss tasting. No, you know this is beer, and you know it's an IPA with it's punch. I have to say, my first pour was not as impressive and I think that's because this beer was sitting in my house for awhile--everything just sunk to the bottom. The second pour was way better. Also, the hopps really punches out in the aftertaste. You sometimes want to smack your lips.
Mouthfeel
The mouthfeel was dry and thin. The liquid went down fast and disappeared from my tongue, leaving the taste of the beer only. The carbonation was there but not strong. I didn't think that was a bad thing, but we're all different. Yeah, I like Gin sometimes.
Overall
I like this beer. Like I said before, this is a really good base to compare IPAs. It seems pretty basic but tough and the quality is easily present. Go judge for yourself,though, because I've been hearing a lot of opinions about IPA's and so it's probably going to be awhile before I can really develop an solid opinion on what is what. We're getting better though aren't we!
Well, before I end this entry I found out something interesting, something trivial, maybe. The pint is different here in the States and in England (and probably the rest of Europe, but I'm not a hundred on that). In the U.S, a pint is 16 ounces. In England, the pint is 20 ounces. There's a law that a pint poured must be 20 ounces in England. All this info was from Wikipedia and it goes on to say that the pint can only be used to measure beer. Most everything else is in the metric system--I guess what I just told you is old. So when you go to Europe and have a pint, you'll see a line on your glass that says "pour to here" which will probably read something like 550ml. There you go! GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN MY PEOPLE!
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