Tasting Notes and Review of Butte Creek IPA

Very nice California IPA - bitter, malty and good.

Pros

Cons

Butte's India Pale Ale pours clear and light amber. It is bottle conditioned so emptying a bottle into your glass will fill it with chunks of yeasty goodness. The white medium head may have tinges of green in it or I might have imagined it as part of my expectations of a California IPA hop-bomb.

The aroma, surprisingly, gives no hint that this is an IPA. It does proclaim a big beer with notes of fig and apple swimming around in a nose-full of maltiness. Despite that, the flavor of the beer is very bitter. The first couple of mouthfuls are packed with a bitterness that lingers on the tongue for a long time. But once the tongue is acclimated some of the malty balance that was promised to the nose begins to rise to the surface. In the end this is a very nice, well balanced American IPA; on the small side of big.