David Brockington's Tasting Notebook

Harpoon IPA

Caveat Corner:

The beer itself came as part of an Inter Continental Beer Movement from a well known beer guy in Virginia. As usual, we both made sure that it was well-treated prior to and following shipment. However, it was shipped during a relatively warm period, so take the following with the appropriate measure of salt. I did note what may be some signs of age in this beer, but I tried to work around it. The beer was reviewed on July 16.

Initial Impressions:

Being IPA month for me, I have allowed my high expectations as to what form an IPA ought to take receive quite a substantial amount of bandwidth. By now, those who have read most of the IPA reviews should have a decent idea of what I expect. Whatever the impact, my expectations of this particular beer were not high. This is probably due to the fact that several months ago I reviewed the Harpoon Stout to this same forum. If there are two styles which I am the most opinionated about, they would undoubtedly be IPA and Stout. The Harpoon Stout did not score very well; it barely rated a Porter in my book.

The IPA formed a pale, slightly rocky head with little coaxing, and while the beer was consumed the head left a nice trail of lacework charting my progress through the glass. The beer itself was golden in shade with a very slight degree of haziness.

Nose:

The bouquet in this beer was probably hurt due to age and treatment. I found little hoppiness, and a hint of cardboard, indicating staleness. This fault would probably be due to oxidation, which would more than likely be a function of age (although poor brewery methodology *could* play a role in this, I honestly believe otherwise.)

Flavor:

The beer begins with a slight malty front coupled with a hint of hop bitterness, which moves into a fuller maltiness (but still not very pronounced or exciting) with some limited hop flavor. The finish is a brief, non-assertive hop bitterness.

Final Analysis:

Not very impressive. While the nose (assuming that there was one to begin with) would have lost out due to treatment, the style was designed with rough handling in mind. In my opinion, an IPA ought to be brewed with a long sea voyage through rough and warm waters as an accepted shipping practice. If a beer can handle that, it certainly ought to be able to handle a five-day transcontinental trip on a UPS truck. Hence, I was quite disappointed to find a non-assertive hop profile in this beer. While I will not expect a full nose out of a beer that has experienced 3000 miles of shipping to make it into my glass, I will expect an aggressive hop bitterness, which ought not be affected by the limited age of the beer. While I must admit that this beer did have more of everything when contrasted with the Red Hook IPA, it still came up short in my book.

**1/2 (out of 5)

Review Addendum

In the summer of 1996 I visited New England. I spent a couple days in Boston. Recalling the criticism this review generated back in 1994, I specifically sought out Harpoon IPA and sampled it in several locations in and around Boston. The 1994 review has also raised valid objections that the beer I reviewed was possibly stale. While a good beer reviewer can work around some defects and knows how to seperate out different flavors within a sample, clearly a better strategy is to actually sample a fresh pint of the beer.

So I did just that. Not recalling my original score, I repeatedly issued Harpoon IPA 2 1/2 stars in my draft samples. While on its merits, it is an interesting beer, and certainly quaffable, as an American IPA it is situated towards the lower end of the spectrum. I was unable to find the level of hop bitterness that one finds in a good IPA, nor was the oft-discussed overwhelming hop aroma evident. In my assessment, this beer falls short as an IPA.

**1/2 (out of 5)

Copyright 1994, 1998 by David Brockington, all rights reserved.
Seattle, USA
 Comments? Fire off some email: dbrock@u.washington.edu

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