Hi All,
I thought my beer experience was sadly incomplete - I'd never had an IPA until last week. To rectify the situation I went to the Swords place at the Vic Market and asked what IPA they had, and bought a couple: Beast from Jamison, and Bling from Beechworth. I'll clearly have to try some more, because the two were so different, it's hard to believe they're supposed to be the same style.
The Beast was, as I expected intensely bitter - actually too bitter for my taste, but I expected this, with a middling copper colour. It had some hop aroma and flavour though not as much as I was expecting.
The Bling had a much deeper colour. Actually, it foamed up when I poured it, to the extent that if it was one of my own brews, I'd say I'd over-carbonated it. It had quite a rich hop flavour and aroma, and a much more balanced malty character - it was still quite bitter, but I liked it much more. Possibly, part of the reason is just getting used to the intense IPA bitterness.
Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what people think, and recommendations of other IPAs to try.
cheers,
T.