今天聽說是『國際IPA日』，又聽說『19世紀時IPA竟然要喝冰的』(？)，索性開一瓶在台北搜得的西雅圖酒花弄，來玩玩不按牌理出牌的『冰上猴戲』~~ (按：我平常是絕不喝冰的啦！)

這款撚花的西雅圖小猴兒，(忘了是)聽(誰)說是用了 Nelson Sauvin 酒花釀的單一品種IPA；由於我家冰箱實在沒力 (太好了！)，酒溫不至於真的到冰，在杯中，酒花苦脂仍舊鮮氣逼人，但NS的獨特滋味由麥芽與酵母酯香整體性地混合折衝後，反而展現出風味頗為均衡可人的一面喔… (意思是：很不芭樂/很不像NS了…) 以下筆記謹供參考。

Elysian, Savant IPA, 6.3%abv. (American IPA)

Coming in a 650ml bomber brown bottle, bottle-conditioned; production date 15/02/2013, served gently chilled in a straight imperial pint glass.

3.75/5 Appearance: pours a murky, dark tea-ish amber colour, coming with a tight layer of creamy beige froth with good retention, on top of rather mild but constant carbonation.

4/5 Smell: exotic and juicy aroma of tropical fruits abounds upfront, reminiscent of Citra actually, while crystal or caramel malts provide a thick backbone of candy-ish maltiness and sweetened roasted tea which is necessary to help reach a balance with the resinous and fragrant hoppiness, yet reducing the performance of Nelson Sauvin’s peculiar, richly juicy yet “higher-pitched” (…??) scent. A very good swirl brings out the aroma of ripe guavas, longan fruits, sweet flowery scent, and more fragrant and lively hop resins.

4/5 Taste: mildly effervescent on the entry, the flavour is initially malty-hoppy on a 50-50 ratio, with longan-fruit, ripe grapefruity fruitiness and faintly mango-ish esters dominating the theme and then giving way to a lengthy and flat hop bitterness which goes deep leaving just a healthy dose of tea-stem-like tannins and moderate acidity along the way. The second sip reveals spicy elements to be added on the balance, yielding even more zingy bitter and lively resinous undertones which work well on prolonging the aftertaste. In line with the observation from the nose, the flavour doesn’t showcase much of Nelson Sauvin’s sharp and peculiar aromatic flavours, either, but comes rather balanced b/w malts and hops while, I’d say, being deliciously estery and resinous at the same time.

4/5 Mouthfeel & 4/5 Overall: refreshing on the mouthfeel with lots of microscopic fizz felt on the taste buds, this medium-plus bodied IPA has a decent profile of hops to deliver against a sound malt backbone, not as crazily hoppy as I first expected from the name of the series to which this product belongs, “Manic IPA Series”. Despite this fact, I still find it a very well executed product very much my cup of tea.

--Yau (01/08/2013)