Smuttynose: "Finest Kind" IPA

Smuttynose... what a cool name!

Smuttynose "Finest Kind" IPA

So yes, I have been a little bit into IPAs recently, I promise I have some other brews in my fridge, but it has been fun to try all of my different IPAs close together and compare.

I first found a six-pack of Smuttynose a while ago in Kroger and bought it simply because of the name. I had never heard anything about them, good or bad. I just liked the funny name. I ended up liking the brew. I figured I would revisit it now that I am writing about beer in this here blog.

The name is actually the name of an island off the coast of New Hampshire, the brewery was founded in Portsmouth (in 1994) and still brews there today.  They have 5 year-round styles (the IPA is one of them) and 3 seasonals.

 

The Finest Kind is the name of their 6.9% ABV IPA. The beer is unfiltered and has some sediment in the bottle (which I left in the bottle- some people prefer to pour it in the glass, some don't).  The beer smelled like hops, grass and citrus (pretty common for the IPAs I've been drinking recently). The taste of this one is pretty much all hops, some balancing features, but basically just a bitter beer all the way though. If you are a "hop-head" I would try this one. I enjoyed it because of that and will be drinking this one again for sure, but not just because of the cool name!

(Beer Advocate Review)

Cheers!