What sets Uinta apart as a brewery, aside from being located in Utah, is their motto "Earth, wind, and beer." They strive to keep everything as earth friendly as possible, as well as promoting the outdoors. From their bottles which are all adorned with a compass around the neck, to their brewery being 100% solar and wind powered, and even all of their spent grain used in brewing, is donated to local farms as feed for livestock. So yeah, they really like doing things the right way. Plus the label design and branding for the company is phenomenal; created by a great Colorado design firm, Tenfold Collective. The only thing about this brewery... I can't figure out how to pronounce the name. Yoo-ween-tah? Ween-tah? Yoo-nee-tah?
Poured into a tulip glass, Hop Notch has a really nice looking deep amber color, with about two fingers of cream colored soapy frothy head. It's leaving behind touches of sticky web-like lacing, but not a whole lot.
Hop Notch's aroma is amazing. Big piney bitterness, big citrus, grapefruit, some sweeter fruit like apricot and pineapple, and still a nice amount of grainy malt in there. There's also a slight pepper aroma on the malt.
The flavor is no different, with a nice smack of hop bitterness and citrus flavors stinging the tastebuds. The first hop assault subsides momentarily to allow some caramel and mild peppery malt flavors to shine. The hop intensity regains its dominance in the finish with resiny bitterness lingering long after each sip.
I'm extremely impressed by Hop Notch, it is a solid IPA with an abundance of bold hop flavor, balanced perfectly by a solid malt backbone, and it maintains a very drinkable creamy mouthfeel. Plus I love that it's right on the boundary of an IPA and a double IPA, which helps it stand out quite a bit against its regular IPA brethren. If you like IPA's, this is a must try.
Personal: 9/10
Style: 9.5/10
Cheers from Uinta (you-in-tah) and thanks for the kind words!
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