Merry Christmas and Happy Sunday Funday! I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Mine was spent with family, craft beer and smoking (pork butt, that is). I was fortunate to receive a bunch of craft beer this holiday season, so I will be reviewing more as time allows.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful and I have a bunch of fishing, as well as some brewing, planned for the next week. Lagunitas Sucks bills itself as a “Joyously Dry-IPA” and it’s from the West Coast, so I’m expecting a ton of bitter and earthy hops. Let’s see how this ends up!
Appearance: Well, I’m sitting in the garage watching football and enjoying the weather, so it’s in a bottle. From what I can tell, it has a decent head and is your typical amber color.
Aroma: I’m picking up a ton of earthy and resinous hops with not a ton of malt to back it up. I’m curious as to what they dry hopped it with.
Flavor: For a dry hopped 8% IPA, the flavors are honestly pretty muted. I get some bitterness followed up by some offsetting malts on the back that fades to an earthy bitterness. There isn’t anything to say in terms of complexity or a great hop profile.
Mouthfeel: Sucks is decently heavy to match the 8% ABV, but not overly so.
Value: It was a gift so, free?
Overall: Lagunitas has a ton of great brews, but this is not one of them. The flavors are mundane and there is no complexity to it. You can drink quite a few of these, but there isn’t much to them. I’d give it a 4/10. There are many better IPAs on the market.
Until next time, tight lines and cheers!
Tight Lines & Beers 