Starr Hill Looking Glass IPA
The newest Spring seasonal from Virginia’s Starr Hill is the 6.5% AB (40 IBU) Looking Glass. The IPA replaces Reviver Red IPA which had previously held the slot since February of 2015. Brewed with a blend of Galaxy, Citra, Mosaic and Columnbus hop varieties, the beer presents a modern, fruit-forward take on the style, but doesn’t go too far into the fruit-juicy realm.
Looking Glass provides an array of tropical traits including passion fruit, grapefruit, pineapple and mango. That said, the fruit flavors aren’t over-the-top, instead presenting a smooth and natural character that mingles nicely with a mellow touch of pine and the lightly bready malt backbone. The low-to-moderate level of hop bitterness and that welcome fruit-forward flavor profile make for an easy drinking and refreshing experience. A gentle level of carbonation just adds to that laid back character, lazily carrying everything to the long lasting and lightly drying finish.
This tasty IPA isn’t the most pungent, dank or necessarily dynamic, but it does exactly what a Spring seasonal needs to do. It preps you for — gets you excited for — those warmer Summer months to come and the more potent IPAs in the near future, like King of Hop for instance. It just so happens that Looking Glass IPA also tastes pretty darn good, going down easy with a solid fruit flavor and light hop bite.
This is a review of a promotional sample.