Lost Coast Indica India Pale Ale

Lost Coast Brewery

this will have to be a quick review as my already slow and poor typing skills have been further impaired by a recent kitchen accident. luckily, the flapper is on my non-beer guzzling hand, so last night I skipped on down to the Alibi Room for a few pints. first up was a pint of Lost Coast's hop-heavy Indica IPA. although the lights were down at the bar, you could still tell that the Indica had a mellow, hazy orange hue. it had a piney and floral aroma which was weaker than most West-Coast IPA's tend to be. on to the good stuff; the taste. I tasted some citrus at first, but once the hops kick they linger for a stretch after tasting. there's also a slight herbaceous taste that loiters with those hops (it didn't occur to me until just this second that's probably why this IPA is called Indica). the Indica is not a balanced beer by an means, which seems to be another IPA tendency from the batty-for-hops Californians. I would've liked to have some more malt to back up those cascade hops.

C+

since The Tippler got started, I've come to realize, not surprisingly, that I can only review the first beer of the night. on subsequent pints, subtlety and nuance are lost on my tongue as well as in my demeanor. that being said, I can't really say much about my next pint other than it was ... what's the word... good. my friend, Ellie, attended the Great Alaska Craft Beer Festival in May. I was asking her about some of the festival favs, and she said that there was an overwhelmingly good response to a mixed beer which was one half chocolate stout and one half raspberry ale. I was intruiged, so we decided to do a version of this from the Alibi Room's offering. Ellie wanted to use a $20 bottle of raspberry lambic in the mix, but I wasn't drunk enough or rich enough to use the lambic in this experiment. we went with a chocolate porter (which I believe was from Phillips Brewing) and Granville Island's limit release raspberry wheat ale. the waiter appreciated the experimental drinking and told me of a few beer mixtures that he likes. the raspberry taste was quite faint, so the ratio needs to be adjusted a bit, but otherwise the result was very tasty. I think I've just opened up a new drinking realm.