Burnt Mill: Green Path (England: IPA: 6% ABV)
Visual: Apricot, mix of clear body with hazy streaks throughout. Large yellow mound of a head. Some hop bits floating within.
Nose: Woods and pine needles. Floral. Good hop feel. Moderate bitterness. Moss. Dried apricot.
Body: Good bitterness. Pine needles. Resin. Dry. Dry grapes. Dry mandarin orange. Soft notes of toffee. Dried apricot. Flour. Light custard. Soft lemon.
Finish: Light charred oak. Solid bitterness and hop character. Drying. Flour. Sulphur. Moss.
Conclusion: This is pretty dry, pretty good hop character and has a solid bitterness. All of that is a good start for an IPA – especially the west coast style. Whoop!. It has got the base concept down well – the question is what garnishes it manages to add to the dish to take that beyond that.
It starts off with quite a floral, flour touched character in the aroma – lots of outdoors imagery and flavours coming in with this one. It is interesting but not quite blowing me away. Now this beer has an awesome hop selection – but it seems to bring its notes in subtly. The fruit notes are very dry, and with it comes the drying bitter character.
It feels like a beer that I really want to like as it gets the base so well done – so drying yet with just enough tartness to not make it painful to drink. It has only the tiniest hint of sweetness against the bitterness but again good enough to offset it. It is just the rest of the beer doesn’t quite pay off that base.
In fact, the name “Green Path” does seem appropriate to sum up the beer – the greenery and moss like notes grow over time, feeling like a more earthy and grounded UK take on an IPA matched to the west coast style. Fascinating, but that doesn’t make it a must drink for me. There aren’t many flaws – the hop remnants left in the beer were a surprise on the pour, and made it feel a tad bitty near the end – but for the most part it is less that it has flaws, but that it doesn’t quite make the most of what it has.
Lots of talent went into a beer that doesn’t quite click for me **Shrug** make of that what you will.
Background: Listed as a “Citra and Mosaic IPA”, some reviews online list a cask version as “Citra, Mosaic and Enigma” So I’m guessing they have mixed up the recipe for the canned version. Anyway, this was grabbed from Independent Spirit – Burnt Mill was voted best new Brewery in England 2017, so I thought I really should check them out. This is listed as a West Coast leaning IPA, which is a style currently oft overlooked in the New England craze so I figured it was worth giving a shot. I put on some Genitorturers to listen to while drinking this – heavy hops deserve some heavy, out there industrial metal music.
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