A new brewery from Massachusetts? Yes, please. I'd actually read up on the Blue Hills Brewery in the BeerAdvocate magazine a while back and liked what I read, so I was eager to pick up some of their stuff when I had the chance. All that I was able to grab was the Blue Hill India Pale Ale, and I gave it a spin the other night.
First off, I know the contents are what matters, but the label on this one is like the cut and paste job from hell. I know the marketing budget's probably non-existant, but it looks like something my soon to be seven year old threw together.
Anyway, back to more important stuff: the beer. There's a slightly hazy, copper color here, with a frothy, smallish off-white head atop the liquid that leaves spotty residue on the glass. Off to a pretty good start, but...
It's all downhill from there. The aroma give off a general maltiness, with some grassy hops (yet the malt still dominates). Some hints of toasted bread float about as well. The problem is that there are definite spots of cooked vegetables here, which is just totally out of the blue and out of place.
The flavor is just more of the same: hops are minimal (this is an IPA, people!) and have a slight bitter bite at the finish. Toasted malt leads again, and cooked veggies still persist...why? It's got a bit of a rubbery taste at times too. There is decent bready finish with each sip, so I will give it that, but that's about all I'll give it.
I was very disappointed here. This is not an IPA at all, and is really a mess all around with unbalanced and out of place flavors. It's all over the map and I most definitely walked away disappointed. I checked some reviews on BeerAdvocate and they're all over the map with just about equal amounts of A's and B's as there are D's and F's. Perplexing, which leads me to believe that there are some serious quality control issues and this could be a good brew eventually once said issues are worked out. Avoid for now.
Hopback, beer, Blue Hills, Massachusetts, IPA, BeerAdvocate,
