Pact Beer Co. ‘100 Acres’ IPA

Rating:

21463195_748794418638039_4809311117758997440_n“Drawing equal cues from both the English and American IPA traditions, the 100 Acres IPA exudes a beautiful bouquet of clean pine and floral aromas with a firm bitterness that excites without overwhelming the palate.”

Served in an IPA glass. It hits the glass with a honey amber hue and seals off with a thumb of tightly beaded foam. Good retention and good lace sticking to the glass as it subsides.
There’s nothing fancy going on with the aroma but it still manages to offer a super clean pine note with heady floral accents, freshly cut grass, tangerine, passion fruit, orange blossom and soft grapefruit undertones. It’s also balanced quite nicely with hints of caramel and oaty biscuits adding to the allure.
The flavour serves up a delicious and well balanced fusion of piney and slightly herbal hops along with semi sweet biscuit malts. An assertive bitterness forms early in the mid which emphasises the pithy grapefruit which carries in to the piney and slightly resinous finish. Good duration on the back end too, this soft citric bitterness really goes the distance.
It’s dry and a little prickly but ultimately approachable. The 6% ABV doesn’t overplay its hand and she’s hit that perfect amount of co2.
As we pointed to earlier in the review, it’s not a flashy IPA it just quietly goes about its business and ticks all the boxes in the process. Quite the surprise (and sessional) package here. Fine drop from this Canberran brewery.