For December of 2017, Taco Mac is featuring two great breweries to provide the Beers of the Month: Founders and Lagunitas. The first Thursday visit for me started with a mug of Founders Azacca IPA in front of me. I toyed with the idea of ordering one of the Lagunitas beers since, hey, I was taking home a Lagunitas lass tonight, but my curiosity over the Azacca won out.

Founders Azacca IPA is named for the signature ingredient, the Azacca hop. I’ll let Founders talk about the beer a little:

Named after the Haitian God of agriculture, the Azacca hop has an intense tropical aroma with hints of citrus and mango. A touch of caramel malt gives a sweet backbone to support the righteous fruit character of this beer…. When our Brewmaster first encountered the experimental Azacca hop it didn’t even have a name - instead just a jumble of letters and numbers. We quickly learned what a powerhouse it was, with the ability to bring huge tropical aroma and flavor to the much-loved IPA style.

So, now you know. I found the beer to be quite interesting. It has an alcohol content of 7% by volume with 70 IBUs. I paid $6.50 for 23-ounces at Taco Mac and that came with a free glass. Total Wine sells it for $10.99 a six-pack in bottles; better to get a 15-pack cans which only runs $5 more. That is very reasonable indeed. This is, believe it or not, the first IPA I have had from Founders. Yes, I’ve had All Day IPA, but it is not an IPA.

My mug of Founders Azacca IPA arrived a bright golden color with a thick fluffy head of foam and a very juicy passion fruit nose. I got more of the same and pineapple too in the palate, a solid caramel maltiness, and a huge sharp lingering bitterness to round it all out.

I liked Founders Azacca IPA a lot. I prefer the classic piney citrusy hops to the modern fruit loopy ones, but I think mostly what turns me off about the modern IPAs is the dearth of malt. I appreciate the malt here, and it makes the beer work so much better than so many of today’s India Pale Ales (many of which are not really IPAs).

Definitely a rebuy chez Bruguru.

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