BREWERY: Goose Island Beer Company
STYLE: IPA
ABV: 5.9%
PURCHASE: Six-pack of 12-oz. bottles, $11.99
SERVING: 12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. An almost three-inch head from both a normal and slower pour. Outstanding retention.
APPEARANCE: Rocky white head atop a transparent, golden body. Visually, could almost pass for a pilsner or Helles. Conspicuous bubbling. Excellent lacing.
AROMA: What we have here is an IPA that isn't all hops all the time! They're nicely held in check by floral and citrus notes--namely grapefruit--as well as malt. Bready for an IPA.
TASTE: Hoppy onset--what else do you expect? Sweet overall mouthfeel. Malty undertones. As with the aroma, the hops are not overly aggressive; instead, they are rounded out by mostly citrus notes. Packs a grapefruit wallop at the back. Aftertaste seems, for the most part, evenly split 50/50 between hops and grapefruit, with some yeast and bitter orange sneaking in there at the very, very end.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: In my original review, I concluded that this is a beer that "flirted with greatness," or something to that effect. That was the draft version.
It's a bit better in the bottle.
Goose Island is one of those breweries that's never categorized in the top of the heap by the online beer snob community, perhaps rightly so. But I find them sorely underrated. They have their share of misfires, but their flagship IPA, while not quite elite, certainly hits the target. I'm bumping this one up a notch.
ORIGINAL GRADE: B+
NEW GRADE: A-
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