BC Beer – Phillips Hop Circle IPA
Phillips’ Hop Circle IPA is the newest ippah in BC. It’s also replacing Phillips’, not so current, Original IPA as the mandatory ippah that every brewery needs to have to keep its craft cred. yo.
Let’s give the Original IPA a moment of silence. Okay, that’s long enough.
When I order my flat of Hop Circle, as per Left4Beer’s recommendation, I was informed that the BCLDB’s warehouse was just about to restock on the Phillips IPA. In other words all future BCL restocks of Phillips IPA will be the Hop Circle. This info only really helps those who if they don’t feel like going on a road trip every time they want some beer, like myself, and are forced to shop locally at the BCL.
Artist Depiction of the Aroma
Hop Circle is a surprisingly light in colour, even for an ippah. The lightness allows the unfiltered goodness to show through. Goodness, that’s the zymurlogical term for the little floaties that aren’t filtered out. Place a beautiful white, clingy head on top of all that and you have a promising beer in your glass. As you catch that first whiff of the beer you know your eyes aren’t deceiving you. A huge bouquet of tropical fruits intermingled with pine. When you sipple on this tipple you can’t help but notice that the flavour takes a bit of a back seat to the aroma. All the while a light sweet malt is present to help balance it out. All of this leads to a piney slightly bitter finish.
It has the characteristics of an IPA that punches you in the tongue and kicks you in teeth, but doesn’t. I feel that Red Racer IPA is better as the flavours are more bold. Hop Circle serves a fantastic segue in to world of in your face IPAs.
Rating: Good
Style: American-style IPA
ABV: 6.5%
Serving Temp: 4ºC
Website: http://phillipsbeer.com/
BCL: 201897
Excellent representation of the flavours, did I see a partridge in that pear tree?
personally, I loved the Original IPA, especially what someone on another blog referred to as its “puckering” taste; why couldn’t they just add the new recipe to their menu? was the original no longer selling? I’m fed up generally with companies telling consumers what consumers “like”