Marin IPA

• Product Reviewed: Marin IPA
• Brewed By: Marin Brewing Co.; Lakespur, California
• Form Reviewed: Draught at the brewery
• Style: American IPA
• Originally posted to Usenet: December 22, 2000
• Added to the Tasting Notebook: January 27, 2001

Since I am moving to Europe soon, I am anticipating that a dark, bottomless hole will soon appear in my life.  While the Benelux is obviously blessed with a variety of excellent beers, one style is unavailable on the other side of the Atlantic.  This style also happens to be my favorite.  Of course, I am talking about AIPA.

Going through my notes, I found those that I wrote about the Marin IPA when I last visited the brewery.  The beer earned high marks, and I have been remiss in not writing up this excellent example of the style.

Initial Impressions:

The Marin IPA is bright in my pint glass, lacking the slightest hint of haze or unwanted suspended bits. Color is a middle amber.

Nose:

This beer has a huge citrusy and piney aroma that blasts out of the glass and knocks you flat.  There is no doubt that this is clearly a four-C beer.  In consulting later with the brewer, I learned that the hopping features Cascades and Columbus throughout, which explains the twin dominance of citrus and piney resin.

Flavor:

Any great IPA needs two components to achieve success.  First, the hopping has to be there.  Without a fierce bitterness or an overall "wall of hops", to quote Delano Dugarm, the beer comes up short.  Second, a structure has to be in place to support this massive alpha-oriented attack.  In a good IPA, such a foundation is built on what we call a malt backbone.  Big hops, solid malt support, and the concomitant higher levels of alcohol are what make a great IPA. 

This beer has all of that.  The Marin IPA opens with a nice, solid, malty introduction to the flavor profile, establishing the essential framework for the alpha assault about to be unleashed on your palate.  This happens, of course, but it opens with a massive hop flavor.  Both a sticky resiny flavor and huge, but not cloying, citrus flavor dominate this stage, followed by the requisite, and anticipated, firm bitterness.  The bitterness of this beer does not disappoint those who love assertive IPAs.   The beer finishes with this bitterness, but here the malty notes return to slowly ease your palate out of the fire.   The malt component of the Marin IPA perfectly frames and supports the beer, both by making its presence known at the right time, and in its subtle nuance with just enough of a crystal component to add flavor to the base malt.

Final Analysis:

Quite simply, a great IPA.  I would like to hear the comments of the bay area contingent to see if I was just very lucky that afternoon, or if this IPA is a regular performer.

Rating:

   
(Excellent on my 5-star scale)