My friends, I give you: Due South Category 5 IPA, an Imperial India Pale Ale from the Due South Brewing Company of Boynton beach, Florida. I have a story to tell about this beer, and I’m about to tell it, so pour yourself a beer, pull up a chair, and hear my tale. A few years ago, a friend and her husband went to Florida, and brought me back a few beers from Florida. Two of them were from Due South; the first was their tasty Caramel Cream Ale, and I drank that up gone shortly after getting them.

The second beer, however, was the Category 5 IPA, and somehow it ended up slowly receding to the back of my first beer fridge, where it kind of sat for about two years. Rummaging through to find a beer to drink one fine Sunday, I found it, and I drank it, and yes it was still quite good, having been kept nice and cold all that time.

I drank it on April 14^th of 2017, and the can is stamped on the bottom with the date 02-00 2015. I took these notes:

Due South Category 5 IPA pours to a cloudy orange color with a thick foamy head and a robust citrusy grapefruit nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a thick chewy caramel maltiness up front, and I love that! There are lush notes of citrusy grapefruit flesh and rind and resin, too, and the beer finishes bitter, though probably not as bitter as young. Excellent indeed.

I did wonder, for comparison purposes, what the beer was like young because it had held up so well over a few years of aging. Well, fate had a can in store from me when good old Tim Maclver was kind enough to bestow me with some Florida goodies. A can of Category 5 IPA dated 02/16/17 was among them, and I popped that on Thursday, May 18^th. Happy Birthday, Dad!

So, let’s try it young! The appearance is the same, the nose is full of robust grapefruit, the palate thick with chewy caramel malt. The beer is subtly toasty malty too with thick resiny pine and bitter grapefruit rind. It finishes very bitter indeed, much more so than the aged can I drank.

Double IPA the way I like it! Malty with pine and resin. Anyway, the beer held up remarkably well over two years. Who says you can’t age IPA? Note, too the cans have changed slightly, as you will see in the photos.

From the website:

2014 Best Florida Beer Championships Gold Medal – Imperial IPA

2014 Best Florida Beer Championships Second Runner Up – Best in Show

2015 Best Florida Beer Championships Bronze Medal – Imperial IPA

The most powerful IPA in the Due South Category series, the Cat 5 is big on hops and big on flavor.  Clocking in at 8.5% ABV and 96 IBU’s, the first bands of malts will make way for the surge of hops on the palate.  Designed for the true hophead, this is not a beer for the faint of heart.Interesting Fact: There is no interesting fact.  This beer is interesting enough on it’s own

Thanks for joining me in this beery equivalent to a Now and Later candy. Due South Category 5 IPA is excellent indeed. Don’t miss it folks!



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