758. Books & Brews – The Three Hopsketeers IPA

758.  Books & Brews - The Three Hopsketeers IPAIt’s a cleaning day here at home, and I took a break to catch up on beer reviews. It’s been several weeks since I posted, because WordPress was down on my phone. It’s a bummer because I visited a couple breweries in Chicago the last couple of weeks (Revolution & Atlas).

My sister went to Indianapolis a couple months ago and stopped at a few breweries in Indy. She called while she was at this brewery and brought this and another beer from there back for me. I’ve never heard of this brewery before, but I’m happy to give it a try.

Location: Poured from the 22oz bomber into a large Sam Adams Perfect Pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 7.9% ABV, 70 IBUs, ~250 Calories

Appearance & Aroma: It’s orange in color and somewhat hazy with a fluffy, cream-colored head on it. There was a piney-earthy hop aroma to it.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouthfeel is somewhat creamy.  The flavor up front is somewhat bready with a bit of piney-earthy hop juiciness. In the middle, the bitterness comes in with a somewhat muddled shop flavor.  The muddled hop flavor continues into the finish with a general mix of hop flavors and bitterness. The hop flavors last for a minute or so in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: In general, I like to pair hoppy IPAs with hearty foods like burgers and pizza. I tend to prefer citrusier IPAs with cheesier foods (like pizza), and more earthy IPAs (like this one) with heartier dishes, like burgers.

Overall Impression: I’m not sure how long this brewery has been around, but I think they’ve got some improvements they could make on this IPA.  It had a nice color, body, and head, but the hop flavors were too muddled for me.  When I say that, I mean it’s like a mix of earthy, piney, and resinous hops that aren’t very distinguishable from one another. They sort of jumble all together into a general “hop” flavor and bitterness.  Overall, it wasn’t bad, but on the scale of IPAs I’ve had from other breweries, I’d say it was below average.

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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