Three or four years ago (I can’t recall exactly), I bought a four-pack of pint beer glasses at World Market. One of them was for a beer called Green Flash Brewing Company in San Diego, California. I hadn’t heard much about them, so I simply logged the name away in my brain and figured that someday I would come across their beers, if they were good.

In 2012, I started hearing lots of good things about Green Flash. Problem was, you couldn’t get their beers in Georgia. But then in April I got an e-mail from Letspour.com, announcing that they did in fact have Green Flash beers. I placed an order for six assorted bottles, one of which was to be my first Green Flash beer, Green Flash Imperial India Pale Ale.

I loved it, and as fate would have it Green Flash beers entered the Atlanta Market several months later. That leads us to the beer under consideration today, the first green Flash beer I purchased in Georgia: Green Flash West Coast IPA. The beer was a bit pricey at $9.99 for a four-pack, but the quaint stubby bottles with raised glass lettering and a loud purple label seemed to be calling my name.

The label says the beer is “Extravagantly hopped” and has an alcohol content of 7.3% by volume. It doesn’t say much else, though the brewery website has this to say:

A menagerie of hops is layered throughout the brewing process: Simcoe for unique fruitiness and grapefruit zest, Columbus for strong hop pungency, Centennial for pine and citrus notes and Cascade for floral aroma. A multi-dimensional hop experience.

It adds that Green Flash West Coast IPA has 95 IBUs, rather impressive. Let’s hop into it, shall we?

Green Flash West Coast IPA pours to a bright orange amber color with a thick rocky head formation and an intensely floral resiny hop nose. A thick layer of Brussels lace clings to the sides of my glass as the liquid descends. Thick chewy caramel malt comes up first upon sipping, then some toastiness that battles the hops into the finish. The hops do emerge early and intensify as they go along, very resiny to my taste, with perhaps some grapefruit, too. The beer is almost like a glass of pine tar when I think about it. The bitterness is amazingly intense in the finish; this beer is not for the meek. It lingers on the tongue for a very, very long time after sipping.

Green Flash West Coast IPA is all about the hops. It is truly excellent, an amazing IPA, even at the price of $2.50 a bottle. One of the best beers I enjoyed in 2012, and I’m still enjoying it in 2013.  

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

 

 

 

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