Ipswich Original Ale

By John & Dad on January 9, 2008 @ 7 PM (1 Comment)

Another beer consumed in our ongoing Thursday night beer review sessions, the Ipswich comes to us from the Mercury Brewing Company in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Dad got this one from his Beer of the Month Club, which makes a great gift, as he will attest to.

A semi-aggressive pour yielded a 1/2″ head that dissipated rather quickly. The beer itself is amber in color with more copper tones than dark tones. It’s cloudy and unfiltered with light sediment in the form of dark black specs.

The aroma is not bad – sweet and hoppy with notes of caramel and citrus. The taste features a lot of citrus undertones – a lemony edge, and bitter hops that predominate throughout. It’s not as sweet as the aroma and the lingering hoppy finish starts with caramel and becomes toffee. It get more hoppy as it warms and is just too hoppy to be good. There’s no sweetness, no complexity and a lack of harmony that unsettles us. It also has a slightly burnt taste that may in fact be the hops killing our taste buds. Those come back don’t they?

It reminds us a lot of a lighter version of Sam Adams – our guess is the New England area for beers is just quite hop-ridden. That may or may not be true, but the Ipswich was just disappointing. It might be better with food, but we don’t think we’ll be giving it a second chance.

Post review, Father Beer Love added a note on the Ipswitch Original Ale.