Sweet Water Brewing Company's IPA

Pours a nice amber, with a decent sized light tan head. Both good, grassy hops and a nice sweet malt. Well balanced and promising so far.

I don;t want to say it's light in the body. It's more that it's more crisp than many IPA's, and it's nice and drinkable. It has a nice bitterness to it that comes out more than the malt, which is surprising based on the smell. Still, if it was weaker in taste I would have hammered it for the lighter than usual feel. But instead, it's an all around nice, even if light, IPA.

Michigan Brewing Company's High Seas India Pale Ale

Holy crap. Been since October since I posted? I know y'all have all been sitting around wondering "OMG, where is BOTD?" Well, y'all can all just relax now.

This one pours a deep amber with a big, pillowy tan head. Smells great. Hoppy and slightly floral, but with a big bready backbone to it.

Funny though, it's more malty than hoppy in the taste. That's fine, just different. And it may be a bit old... If so, though, it aged very well. Bitterness comes out more in the aftertaste, and is actually pretty nice.

Very good beer. I can't recall having other beers from this brewery, but I'll be sure to try more.

Flying Dog Brewery's Snake Dog IPA

One of the most over-hyped over self-promoted breweries ever. Yes, I like the label art. The beer just never has matched it.

Pours a decent enough amber, with a pillowy tan head that is fairly large probably because the last pour out of the bottle was all foam. Smells nice enough, with a fair amount of grassy hops but a substantial amount of malt as well.

Eh. Kind of a dull, hollowness to it. The grassy hops smell is adulterated in the taste, and the bitterness flattens out to bland, followed by a weird bitter aftertaste.

About what I remembered this beer to be, when I tried it years ago. Won't try it for several more, if then.

Odell Brewing Company's India Pale Ale

Pours a hazy, deep amber with a nice tan head. Smells floral, with a sharp alcohol bite right at first. Both mellow to primarily malt. Not really sweet,and not really bready.

Ooof. Tastes like alcohol and sharp bitterness. Not in a good way, either. Thin body that makes it feel and taste week, except for the harshness of the alcohol and a bitterness that isn't really hoppy, just harsh.

Not a good beer, and I'm not drinking any more of it.

Tallgrass Brewing Company's IPA

This one's left over from a Kansas trip last Thanksgiving. I've had beers from this brewery in BOTM shipments, so I had to finish out their others when I saw them.

Pours a foamy and slightly hazy amber with huge carbonation and a huge pillowy tan head.

Great smell. Nice and grassy, slightly sweet malt.

Nice. Body is a little light, but it's spot on otherwise. This is the best Tallgrass beer I've had so far, and it's a very good IPA.

Avery Brewing Company's Dugana IPA

Avery has a ton of fanboys out there, and in general I don't get it. Avery reminds me a lot of Stone, because they always seem to be trying too hard and their labels remind me of some emo wiccan in a high school art class. But I always buy them, for some reason, because I like bigger beers and these guys seem to try to make a lot of them.

This one pours a nice, slow, deep amber with a big light tan head that stays very well.

Smells great. Grassy and a bit sweet, simple, like an IPA should.

Damn. It has the bitterness, but not the body, of a barley wine. Great grassy hops, at the high end of the style, with malt that's a bit lower. Not really unbalanced, just a hop-forward version of an IPA.

Very nice surprise, and one of the best Avery beers out there.

Breckenridge Brewery's Lucky U IPA

Another brewery I always want to like, Breckenridge has some fairly decent beers. From what I can remember, their best so far is their Agave Wheat.

This one pours a nice coppery amber with a light tan head that thins to a sheet quickly.

Smells nice. Grassy, with sweet malt.

Very nice. Good punch right up front, fades cleanly through sweet malt to a dry, bitter aftertaste.

Good beer. They stuck to the basics, and it turned out well.

Dundee Brewing Company's India Pale Ale

One of the last from my Dundee variety pack, and I'm hoping this one redeems the rest.

Pours a good amber color with a decent light tan head. Despite good carbonation, the head is gone pretty quickly, but stays at a sheet.

Smells very good. Solid sweet malt and grassy hops are fairly equal.

The bitterness hits you right up front, but then... nothing. It's very hollow in the taste, and the body is weaker than the malty smell would indicate. It fades quickly to taste like a more bitter Budweiser--and I mean that literally. It doesn't fade to a macro in general, this one tastes like a hoppy Bud.

I like Budweiser, but an IPA that finishes like one is just too weak.