It appears as if Boston's Harpoon Brewery is expanding the offerings in it's regular lineup as well as getting ready to introduce the latest beer in it's Leviathan Series.
First up we have Harpoon BPA, a Belgian-Style Pale Ale that according to the neck label is a "golden amber ale that boasts a mellow malt body and a spicy, fruity aroma." This looks like it is a larger scale bottling of the BPA that was brewed in 2006 and offered at both the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival and the BeerAdvocate Belgian Beer Festival that year, and has sporadically popped up here and there since then. It seems to be a take on their IPA, just brewed with a Belgian yeast strain. No word yet as to if this will be a seasonal or one-off offering or if it is a new year round addition to the Harpoon family, but I will update if and when the brewery provides more details.
Next is an Imperial Red for the Harpoon Leviathan Series, of which each "big beer" is brewed in 120 barrel batches. This one comes in at 9.2% ABV and is "a deep amber ale [that] has an intense hop flavor that balanced by a complex malt character." The label continues on to note that the "yeast's fruity esters blend perfectly with the citrus hop aroma."
Belgian Pales and IPA's seem to be more and more popular these days so Harpoon's take on it will be interesting to see, and at the very least if it is simply the Harpoon IPA with a different yeast strain, it'll be nice to compare the two side by side, a la Victory HopDevil and Wild Devil.
As for the Imperial Red, both the 100 Barrel Series and the Leviathan Series are always interesting and more often than not are also well done, so this is another offering to look forward too...
Beer, Hopback, Harpoon, Boston, BPA, Belgian, Pale Ale, Leviathan, Imperial Red
