At some point, there will be a backlash. That’s the way it works with trends. First you have bell bottoms, then you have skinny jeans. The pendulum swings. Right now, we’re living in a world full of fruit forward IPAs, from Ballast Point’s Grapefruit Sculpin to the new tangerine IPA from Green Flash. At some point, the pendulum will swing back to more straight forward, dry, piney IPAs, but for now, it seems as if our IPAs are being strained through Carmen Miranda’s hat. Case in point, these two new beers, Bridgeport’s Stumptown CandyPeel IPA and Victory’s Agave IPA (with agave syrup and grapefruit juice). Both boast fruity profiles, but they go about it in totally different ways—one with specific hop strains (and a little bit of orange peel), the other with adjuncts. The results couldn’t be more different, and probably not in the way you might think.
Bridgeport Stumptown CandyPeel IPA
I feel like Bridgeport is really setting the stage with the name and label of this beer. The branding comes across as being juicy, and it does not lie. The nose is all sugary sweetness, and the first sip follows through with a rush of malty goodness. It’s orange, mango, maybe a little pineapple…The whole package has a nice, supple mouthfeel—totally pleasant—but the cool thing about this beer, is that most of that fruity sweetness in the profile comes from the use of Styrian Golding hops. The orange peel doesn’t really show itself until the back end of the sip. And even then, it’s subtle, adding a slight bittering note, but refusing to take over the show. The Vienna malts, the Styrian Golding hops, the orange peel…it’s all perfectly balanced and still delivers that juicy character we’ve all come to love. I’m a fan of Bridgeport, and this might be the best Bridgeport IPA I’ve had to date.
Rating: 86
