ACME California IPA

North Coast Brewing Co.

I have a unique job in that it is high stress yet performed in a low stress environment. I work with four friends that I've known for years, which makes the days in which I lose money easier to take. sometimes, I work from home. sometimes, I work from home and lose a bunch of money. this was one of those days. instead of commiserating with my friends over pints of Tennent's Lager & Boddington's at the pub below our office (...that's right, I work above a pub), I decided to do the at-home equivalent and scavenge my fridge for any leftover beer from last night's birthday celebration for Arianna. two beers left. the first, a bottle of North Coast's ACME IPA, was kindly left behind by The Tippler's own Big Love. the second, a can of Bowen Island Lager, left by Miran. it did cross my mind to crack the BI Lager as it seemed an appropriately cheap drink to be married with my losing day. but, that thought lasted a nanosecond and I reached for the ACME (sorry, Miran - and I can't guarantee that it'll still be in the fridge the next time you visit).

this is the fifth North Coast beer to be reviewed on The Tippler, which means that one-third of our reviews have been dedicated to this one Northern Californian brewery. after this IPA, there's only one more North Coast beer sold at my local beer store to be reviewed - their Blue Star wheat beer. North Coast has been the supplier of most of my beverages this summer, but this is my first taste of their California IPA.

as you can see in the photo, it poured with a nice half inch head and had a high level of carbonation right out of the bottle. both the head and carbonation reduced dramatically soon after pouring. this IPA's colour is beautiful - a blend candied oranges and honey is as best as I can describe it. the aroma is less impressive as the colour with spicy hops hitting your nose first and after I smelled something fresh like lakewater. yeah, I said it... lakewater. I'm talking about that nice first smell of a lake at the start of your two week holiday, not the dank, still, mosquito ridden stench you get by the end of it. there are strong caramel malts that hit you at first which are balanced out by some really nice finishing hops. like a good IPA, these hops linger like a bad house guest. I could still taste the hops from my first sip a good two or three minutes afterwards. on subsequent sips I couldn't really pick out any discernible tastes. the strong malts that I tasted at first seemed to be erased by the hops progressively quicker as the glass emptied. a nice heat came at the end from the 6.5% ABV. I'm not sure if I could make a night out of this beer, but the afternoon bottle that I enjoyed sure helped to ease the pain of a bad workday.

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