Port Brewing | Wipeout IPA

Please pardon my bad photo, I didn't feel like stealing one from Google this time.

Port Brewing Wipeout IPA, first off it needs to be said how great it is that Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey are now available in New Jersey. It was only two months ago that I had my friend from California stashing bombers of the stuff into his luggage when he came to visit.

In case you're unfamiliar with the name, Port started as "Pizza Port" in the 90's as a couple of pizza brewpubs around San Diego that gained a lot of attention for their locally crafted hoppy beers. Their popularity grew so much that in 2006 they decided to open up a real brewery. One year later, Port Brewing was named 2007 Small Brewery of the Year & their brewer Tomme Arthur was named brewer of the year at the Great American Beer Festival. Then only 6 months after that, they won Champion Small Brewery & Brewer at the 2008 World Beer Cup. Lets hope the coming years will bring more rare and delicious beers from Port Brewing to the east coast!

Poured into a chalice glass, Wipeout IPA has a hazy golden amber color with a big fluffy cream colored head. A good amount of sticky lacing is left all over the glass, and there is still a generous amount of froth atop the beer after sitting for some time. The aroma is very hoppy, with lots of resinous pine and citrus fruit. There is a mild sweetness accompanying the bitter aroma, but it's more of sweet mango and pineapple than malt sweetness.

The flavor is of juicy tropical fruit; mango, pineapple, grapefruit, as well as resinous pine. There is a slight bitterness that does more of balancing the sweetness rather than get too astringent. Lingering hop bitterness finishes each sip. The hop flavor in this IPA is honestly... incredible.

With a medium body and mildish carbonation, it's hard not to drink this beer in 1 minute because of how delicious it is. Depending on your tolerance to bitter hoppy beers, you may disagree, but I find this to be refreshing and very drinkable. Not to mention, one of the best examples of a west coast IPA I've ever tried (it's hard to believe this isn't a DIPA). Here's to hoping we have some bottles left when I get back to work tomorrow! Personal 9.5/10 for an IPA 10/10.