Smuttynose IPA has character… its own character. The bitters come with the first sip from the glass and grow in your mouth. This is the taste of my youth in mega dose. After a mouthful has drifted down into the internal plumbing the taste in the mouth holds the hops, a dryness that begs for another draught of the good stuff. Take a long pull and enjoy the rush of flavor, then the astringent aftertaste.
This IPA is akin to Extra Special Bitters. A much more hoppy ale than Harpoon’s, which is pretty much the standard in our minds for regular IPA. I qualify with “regular” because the Big Brews/Imperials have some real rocket fuel versions that fit in another class.
Smuttynose Brewery is one of a dozen or so New Hampshire craft breweries (excluding of course the mega brewery Budweiser in Merrimack). It takes its name from an island off the NH/Maine coast about ten nautical miles from Portsmouth. This is the ale of the oldtime longliners in their schooners off the Isles of Shoals. It is the ale of the lobsterman among the rocky shoreline coves. It is the brew of the dorymen bent to the oars with a load of cod. It is the “finestkind”, “ayuh”, “fawe shuah”.
Excuse me while I fill up the glass with another. One is never enough of this class act brew.
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