Juicy, dank, hoppy, hazy. These are all descriptors of "New England Style" IPAs and are what true IPA lovers seek out. I've been wanting to try IPAs from Boston's Trillium Brewing for a long time, as their reputation for highly sought after brews is well known around the Northeast. I even tried going to their Fort Point location last year, but they were sold out of all of their IPAs.
Luckily, I now have friends that live in the area, so I was able to get my hands on a 4-pack of five different IPAs and one double IPA. Perfect for a HopGurus tasting!
Unlike the last Tasting Series, this was not a blind tasting. We were not familiar with any of these beers, so there was no bias toward any of them.
Before going into the details of the tasting, let me say this: it was one of the more difficult tastings we've had in a long time. All the beers were delicious. No one could find a fault in any of them. Because of the high caliber of the brews, and the relatively similar undertones, it was really hard to distinguish the subtlety of flavor especially when you consider the intense hop flavors coating our palettes.
So, apologies to the masses, we did a terrible job of taking notes on each individual beer. All we heard around the table was "mmmmmmmmm" every time someone took a sip, regardless of the brew. We promise to do a better job next time. But, overall, the beers were crisp, slightly bitter, and really showcased the juiciness of the hops.
| Beer | Super Alpha | Zeus | Zythos | Milennium | Apollo | Summit | Opal | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Congress Street IPA - 7.2% | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2.57 |
| Melcher Street IPA - 7.3% | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1.86 |
| Scaled IPA - 7.0% | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4.14 |
| Double Dry Hopped Sleeper Street IPA - 7.2% | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3.43 |
| Double Dry Hopped Summer Street IPA - 7.2% | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3.00 |
THE IPA WINNER: Scaled IPA
THE OVERALL WINNER: Mettle Double IPA
We did not include Mettle in the baseline IPA tasting due to it's ABV, but it easily became our favorite after opened the can.
