Lake Placid India Pale Ale

I don't really know much about this brewery but I picked up a 6 in my local bodega. I am always excited about local beers, especially IPAs and this one does actually feature an adirondack chair on the label! A new summer favorite? Let's see...

The Pour - An opaque, light copper color on this one with a finger of delicious looking foam. A solid start but the color has me a bit worried, could this be another heavily hopped red ales that more and more seem to be mistaken/mislabeled as IPAs? I'd really expect this to be more gold in hue. But the head is staying put for quite a while, that's promising. (The head actually stayed for the entire pint, that's nice for Stephen.)

6/10

The Nose - A good hops bite is there, not as deep as a 60 minute or a west coast IPA but still seems to be an IPA built true hop fans. There is a bit of sweet malt in the back, actually kind of similar to the 90 minute in odor. This is good.

7/10

Mouthfeel - Very, very crisp and light. The hops are upfront and a very pleasing level of bitterness, which is great. There is a tiny bit of malty syrup that is noticeable but it doesn't linger. This is definitely a beer I could drink in an armchair for a couple of rounds. Very drinkable, very light feeling, this is a session IPA.

8/10

Taste - The fresh hops make this quite tasty and overall it's going down pretty rapidly. It is very similar to the Brooklyn IPA, a personal favorite of mine. However the sweetness is stronger in the Lake Placid than I'd ideally like it to be. As it sits for a few minutes the hops is fading pretty quickly leaving the malt to stand for itself. This is not a good thing and is happening quite rapidly as the beer sits out of the fridge for less 10 minutes. Since it's so light the sweetness feels odd without the syrupy texture of as, say, the 90 minute. Unfortunately this is not a pleasant way for the beer to finish at all and it leads to pour out the last few sips. Fortunately I do have a couple more left and I know to drink these faster...

6/10

Overall-

This beer does have a lot of good qualities going it's way and its 28/40, so better than middling. It looses tons of points for the disappointing finish, why did you have to leave us so soon Hops? Also working against this beer is the fact that it is so similar to the Brooklyn IPA that I actually wish it were the Brooklyn IPA and I can't help but feel slightly upset about that. On it's own though, it is a very tasty IPA that I wouldn't mind drinking again, but remember, drink this one quickly...