• Brewery: Green Flash Brewing Co.
• Country: USA
• Style: American IPA
• ABV: 7.3 %
• Size: 355 ml
• Bought from: Online, 4 euros?
• Beer Advocate
• RateBeer

Green Flash Brewing have impressed me greatly, and I liked both their Hop Head Red and Imperial IPA (especially this one). Their West Coast IPA is one which I attempted to clone (well it wasn’t an exact clone, more of an ‘inspired by’) last summer, and I suspect I wasn’t even close to the original. This American IPA has been hopped with Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade to an IBU of 95 (making this border to an Imperial IPA), so should be packed with citrusy and resiny hop tones. I couldn’t find any information on the malt bill, but suspect it consists mostly of Pale Ale malt and a hint of Light Crystal and/or Cara-pils. Let’s see how it tastes!

[easyreview title=”Green Flash West Coast IPA” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours clear golden-amber, with a fluffy and long-lasting white-colored head, that leaves lacing along the glass as the liquid level falls. The second pour was a bit cloudier, as some yeast sediment managed to make its way to the glass.” cat1rating=”4.5″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”The aroma contains both some tones of sweet caramel and a fresh citrusy, resiny, floral and grassy hoppiness (similar tones to as when smelling a bag of dried hops). A really nice aroma, but it maybe feels a little subdued (‘tired’ bottle?).” cat2rating=”4″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins with the slightest hints of caramel, but it quickly becomes clear that this beer is all about the hops. Tones of resin, grass, earthy herbs and citrus can be found, and the flavor finishes with an aggressive bitter and dry finish. Even though the beer is very bitter, there is still lots of dank and citrusy hoppiness to back it up. It maybe feels a bit unbalanced, without a stronger malt backbone (but I guess that it what the US West Coast IPAs are famous for).” cat3rating=”4″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a medium-light body and a moderate carbonation level. Quite refreshing to drink, but the huge bitterness withdraws some points. The huge amount of hops give a slightly oily feel.” cat4rating=”4″ summary=”A great beer, that didn’t quite reach the top. There was a great amount of hop tones in both the aroma and flavor, but the aggressive bitterness made it feel a bit unbalanced. Since Green Flash started just recently with date-marking their bottles, this one didn’t have any information on bottling dates. I suspect the bottle wasn’t super-fresh, but it still was very tasty. Diamond Beer have recently started importing Green Flash beers to Finland, so you should be able to find these in well-stocked pubs!”]