REVIEW 173: CCCCC IPA

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA  (Yardley, PA!)

BREWERY:  Vault Brewing Company

STYLE:  IPA

ABV:  6.4%

PURCHASE:  Draft (12 oz.), $7.00

SERVING:  Footed gibraltar glass. Perfect one-inch head from the tap with very good retention.

APPEARANCE:  Very nice, golden yellow-orange body takes on a "sunrise/sunset" kind of appearance. Bright white, densely packed crown. Visually speaking, could pass for a witbier or hefeweizen. Not much in the way of visible bubbling, and on the first go-round, not much lacing. That changed next beer; must have been an issue with the "beer-cleanliness" of the glassware. (Google it.) 

AROMA:  Hoppy (no shit). But also has prominent notes of caramel and citrus, particularly in the form of grapefruit. Orange and lemon zest seems to sneak in there, as well as some other fruit--my guess is mango. A little bready as well.

TASTE:  Hoppy (no shit). But also has prominent notes of caramel and citrus, particularly in the form of grapefruit. Some other fruit seems to factor into the taste profile, seems to be melon or mango, possibly orange. Moderately carbonated with a relatively light mouthfeel for an over-6% brew. A little yeasty. The one major downfall here is a stubborn, artificial sweetener quality that seems to crescendo at the back and linger in the aftertaste. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Multidimensional for an IPA, and that's a positive. A lot of IPAs fall into the trap of being hoppy and pretty much nothing else. This one strives for more, and just about gets there. 

So why is it called "CCCCC?" Or, "5Cs," for short? Because of the five varieties of hops used in the brewing process for this beer, all of which begin with, you guessed it, the letter C: Cascade, Centennial, Columbus, Chinook, and Citra.

They couldn't use just four. "CCCC" already belongs to a community college somewhere, I'd bet. And "4Cs" is too close to 4C (potential lawsuit).




GRADE:  B+