Buxton: Medusa Bay (England: IPA: 5.9% ABV)
Visual: Clear yellow-apricot. Huge white head, with a good chunk of small bubbled carbonation in the body.
Nose: Dried mango. Fluffy, bitter hop character. Dried apricot. Light greenery. Prickly character. Mild hop oils. Sweet peach syrup. Palma violets,
Body: Raspberry and yellow raspberries. Tart pineapple. Prickly hop character. Greenery, pepper and hop oils. Kumquat. Kiwi. Palma violets. Pink grapefruit.
Finish: Hop oils. Greenery. Dried apricot and sweet peach. Sour cream twist. Good bitterness and hop character. Pink grapefruit. Yellow raspberry. Tangerine.
Conclusion: An IPA. A genuine IPA. Not a NEIPA, an IPA. Yes I know, I’m a grumpy old man shouting for the NE to get off my lawn. I keep trying not to dump on the New England take on the IPA style, but, after so many NEIPA takes on the style, a rock solid, slightly west coast IPA leaning if not perfectly fitting that style, take on the IPA is exactly what I need. That and long run on sentences it seems.
The base is fairly dry and clean – lightly sweet but mainly out of the way. The hop fruitiness and bitterness does most of the heavy lifting here. It mixes up a few different IPA hop takes in the flavor profile. There’s tart pineapple and pink grapefruit that make up a fresh middle to the beer – feeling a bit NZ hopped style, but there’s notes like a varied raspberry tartness that means it doesn’t fit neatly into that box. There are American style apricot notes, always backed by that slight savoury to vegetable touched bitterness. It feels like a mid 2000’s style IPA remade with access to the modern hop varieties, giving a new spin on an old classic.
The bitterness is present but not harsh – mixing lightly oily but solid bitterness with a peppery present character for weight. It feels like a subtle re-imaging rather than a revolution of an IPA, but it is solid as hell. Big flavour, nice hop choice, and IPA that is exactly what I wanted right now. The classic USA style IPA brought right up to date.
Background: This was a fairly simple choice to grab. I was just looking for a straightforward, no frills IPA and 1) Buxton have been very reliable as a brewer and 2) It is made with a solid dry hop selection of Citra, Mosaic and Ekuanot. Not every beer needs to be something out there – I just wanted a solid IPA and hoped this would be it. Another one grabbed from Independent Spirit. Went for a similarly solid music choice with straight up Metallica – Master of Puppets. Was bloody humid and sticky, so I had this chilled down a touch more than I normally would.
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