Japanese Green Tea IPA
I hope every one had themselves a wonderful Thanksgiving Day celebration full of good food and beer. This collaborative effort between Baird Brewing, Ishii Brewing and Stone Brewing wasn’t enjoyed over the holidays, but a couple of weeks ago (still working on that backlog of reviews).
I’m not much of a teach drinker, but it’s inclusion in this beer was definitely a draw for me to pick up a couple of bottles. The Sencha green tea leaves that were used to dry-hop the beer and the blend of hops (American Warrior, Crystal, New Zealand Pacifica, Aramis and Sorachi Ace) should be enough for any fan of eccentric beers to want to at least try this one out.
Appearance
You know this one is unfiltered right after pouring, as a fine layer of sediment settles to the bottom of the glass. The beer pours a light orange in color with a slowly falling white cap that resulted in a pretty solid bit of lacing.
Aroma
Piny, leafy and grassy hops dominate the nose while hints of green tea, lemon and herbal notes come out to entice, as well.
Taste
This beer packs a solid helping of hops though not as aggressive as Stone IPAs have come to be known for — the hops carry tropical citrus and piny notes. The green tea leaves are present, but don’t really come out until late in the moderately bitter finish. For such a high alcohol content (9.2% ABV) this beer is deceptively drinkable. I didn’t pick up much alcohol until the beer had some time to warm in the glass, and even then it didn’t impact the flavors all that much.
Overall
Like I stated, I’m not a tea drinker, though I found myself wanting a bit more from the beer in that regard. The Sencha tea leaves provided a nice bit of flavor, but I wanted to taste more of it throughout the beer. All in all, though, this is an outstandingly tasty IPA. Hopefully, it will be released again at a future date.
Rating:4/5