Mar 13, 2017

Coronado and Cigar City Conquista IPA

Both California’s Coronado Brewinng and Florida’s Cigar City are no strangers to the IPA. Each has crafted some truly flavorful and well rounded examples of the style, whether it’s Coronado’s latest year-round offering or Cigar City’s tasty flagship. It only makes sense the two would come together to work on a collaborative IPA, Conquista — especially seeing as how well the two breweries worked together on Jurata Baltic Porter.

Not only does this IPA bring together two companies who know how to get the most out of hops, but it also features Polaris, a newly released German variety, within a blend that also includes Equinox and Simcoe. This new hop is described as having complex pineapple and herbal notes. Well, it certainly provides a nice herbal and peppery profile to this tasty IPA, but I personally don’t pick up an overly dynamic pineapple, though the flavor does come out more as the beer has had a chance to warm in the glass.

Those soft tropical fruit notes join pine, grapefruit and grassy hop notes along with gentle bread and grain for a flavor that is balanced and spot on for what I personally look for in an IPA. It’s not an overly fruity beer and packs a good bit of dankness into its golden depths along with a hop bitterness that feels a bit stronger than the 55 IBU listed on the press sheet — this is a good thing.

It’s always fun to sample a beer that incorporates a new hop variety just as Conquista does with Polaris. This IPA hits many marks for what I prefer in examples of the style — it’s piney with good fruit character and a moderate hop bite, all of which adds up to a refreshing and satisfying drinking experience.

This is a review of a promotional sample.