Karl Strauss brewing co. ‘tower 10’ IPA

Rating:

Karl Strauss brewing co tower 10 IPA“Mission Beach, the late 1980s. Amid a sea of neon bikinis, Tower 10 marked the spot where two college grads and a 75 year-old master brewer drew up plans for the first local craft brewery in San Diego since Prohibition. Named in honor of our first good idea, Tower 10 IPA is brewed to inspire the next one”

This is such a classy brewery! Their pin tail pale ale was an easy 5/5 so we now hold very high expectations for this IPA. Served in an IPA glass the heavily clouded orange pour constructs a well maintained 1 inch white head that retains well, omitting sudsy, sparse lacing. Even without a twirl of the glass the famous west coast Chinook hops are offering big bitter wafts of grapefruit and resinous pine. Centennial and Cascade are backing it up with tropical fruits including lychee, passion fruit and mango. Subtle hints of cedar and white pepper in here too. Quite unbalanced but we think this is just brilliant. Absolutely brilliant aroma. Using 3 of our most favourite hops, the only one missing is our most favourite – Citra. Quite an astringent mouth feel with medium carbonation and body. 60 IBU is quite modest but definitely makes it’s assertive presence felt upfront, pairing up with underripe grapefruit to kick things off. An evident alcohol warming (7.2% ABV) carries through the mid-palate, picking up resinous pine and citrus peel which delivers a crisp, dry finish with intense bitterness. Some woody hints on the back end. Wow, so unbalanced but this should play well into the hands of a true hop head. Just a huge, bitter hop fest! We loved it.