Just the other day, a friend and I were discussing the new Abita Wrought Iron IPA. What was up with that, we pondered, didn’t Abita already have an IPA? They do, Abita Jockamo IPA to be exact, and a fine beer it is indeed. Would Wrought Iron IPA be replacing Jockamo was the next logical question, but a trip on over to Abita’s website shows that beer still listed as part of their regular lineup. Good news, that. We finally decided that lots of breweries make zillions of IPAs these days, so Abita must just be adding another to their repertoire.

As Abita beers are featured this month at Taco Mac and Wrought Iron IPA is one of the four featured Abita brews, I decided of course to try it. I was not disappointed as we shall see, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed when you try it, either. Here’s what Abita says about the beer on their website:

Abita Wrought Iron® IPA embodies the resilient, indestructible nature of New Orleans. This india pale ale is forged with the intensity of Apollo, Equinox and Mosaic Hops. Brewed with pale ale malt for a golden color as bright as iron from a fiery forge.

Right away, you can see some differences between Wrought Iron and Jockamo IPAs. For one thing, the hops are completely different. While Wrought Iron uses the above varieties including the newly arrived Mosaics, Jockamo uses more classic Willamette and Columbus hops. Wrought Iron is stronger, too (6.9% ABV versus 6.5% for Jockamo) and has more bitterness (80 IBUs to 52 for Jockamo).

How much will Wrought Iron cost you? I paid $5.25 for a 20 ounce mug at Taco Mac and Target has it for $8.55. It was pint glass night to boot, so I got a free Abita glass with my beer.

My mug of Abita Wrought Iron IPA arrived a beautiful orange amber color with a light to medium head formation and a very tropical fruity nose, passion fruit and melons came to mind most noticeably. Taking a sip I got medium caramel malt body up front followed by a very assertive hop character of the aforementioned passion fruit and much bigger notes of piney resin. A long dry bitter finish lingers for a while and rounds out the beer nicely.

I really enjoyed this beer and found it very interesting the way the passion fruit and resin hoppiness interact here. For the price, it’s an excellent new-fangled “West Coast” IPA and it went perfectly with an order of calamari with sweet chili sauce.



Home