Congress Street India Pale Ale

Review Date 9/14/2024 By John Staradumsky

  Style: India Pale Ale   Brewery: Trillium   Country: USA   State: Massachusetts   $ Per OZ: $.30 (B)   ABV: 7.2%

Welcome, Trillium brewing of Canton, Massachusetts, to Guruofbrew.com, based out of Canton, Georgia! Actually, being an old time New Englander myself transplanted to Georgia, I had been wanting to try Trillium beers for a while (they’re all the rage, you see). Never could get my hands on them, though. Thern a funny thing happened.

It was a fine Saturday morning about a week ago and I hopped on over to Half Time Beverage to check out the Pumpkin Beer selection. Whoa! They Had Narragansett Out of Your Gourd, and that went right into my cart. While shopping for other beers to fill my order, I was surprised to see Trillium Congress Street India Pale Ale. So of course, I bought a can of that, too, fully expecting they would run out before filling my order.

Life is strange, though, and they actually ran out of the Narragansett beer but shipped me the Congress Street. Sad, but what can you do? My box from Half Time arrived this Friday two days ago as I type, and after a long and grueling week at work, I deserved a treat. I drank it that very same night.

Trillium says:

Our flagship American IPA highlights the distinctively aromatic Australian Galaxy hop. The nose bursts with pine, citrus rind, melon and pineapple. Pronounced flavors of peach, clementine, and tropical fruits are accentuated with moderate bitterness and balanced by a light, biscuity malt character.

Ingredients from the website:

HOPS: Galaxy, Columbus

MALT: American 2-Row Barley, White Wheat, C-15, Dextrine, Dextrose

Trillium Congress Street India Pale Ale has an alcohol content of 7.2% by volume and I paid $8.99 for my pint can. You can buy it at the brewery for $19.20 a 4-pack, which is a bit high in my opinion. My can has no freshness dating. Maybe they think you should drink it as soon as you get it. I think you should too. I sure did.

Trillium Congress Street India Pale Ale pours to a hazy orange juice color with a thick fluffy white head and a nose of fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice, plus resiny pine (a hint of that). A thick layer of Brussels lace formed on the sides of my glass and followed the liquid all the way to the bottom.

Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body, with a light note of brteady and biscuity malt. The beer immediately pops with juicy orange and grapefruit akin to the notes I got in the nose. It offers up vibrant bitter grapefruit rind, more pine, and adds in the finish earthy herbal grassy hop notes, too. Peachy stonefruit notes emerge as it warms. Oddly, fresh raw carrots are here, that from the hops. A little more than balancing bitter finish.

A very tasty New England IPA-from New England! It was tasty indeed and it was gone in half an hour as I just could not stop pulling on it. I would give it 4 ½ stars for style and hedonistic enjoyment, taking back a half star for the high price.