This IPA is East coast in style. It pours a fluffy head that fades too quickly, leaving sparse patches of lacing. “Southern Tier IPA is triple hopped on its journey to your glass for a fully aromatic experience.”

The aroma is a balance of grainy malts, and citrus hops and a bit pine oil. It’s definitely more malty than most IPA’s. Sweet, hoppy.

The flavor is also very balanced, in the way that a double IPA is usually balanced. Malts and hops anchor each other. Malts provide the sweet caramel, and hops provide the tangerine and grepefruit accents. There’s also a nice yeast element that brings an earthy quality to the mix. Resinous, but not way too much. Good hop flavor with good bitterness. A bit creamy, medium-thick grain viscosity. High drinkability. Respectable ABV.

Overall, it’s not bad. Granted it has plenty of room for improvement, and there are much better options out there. It sort of straddles the line of East and West coast IPA’s. It’s nicely balanced and drinkable like the East, yet loaded with hop oil bitterness like the West. Southern Tier always seems to fall in the high 80’s for me as a brewery. Recommended, see what you think.

7.3%

65 IBU

Lakewood, New York

http://www.southerntierbrewing.com/beers.html