Redhook Ale Brewery - Longhammer India Pale Ale

I was a little shocked to discover a brand spankin' new brew from Redhook Ale Brewery located right here at my local six pack shop in little ole Western Pennsylvania. Longhammer IPA (proudly brewed by Redhook Ale Brewery) was located in plentiful 12 ounce bottle supply on the second shelf of the IPA section in the cooler at my favorite microbrew beer shop and I just had to grab a couple of bottles for sampling and review.

Upon getting the two chilled bottles home, there was no time to waste in making an immediate pour and sampling of one of the two. Pouring the now, not-so-perfectly chilled bottle into a standard unchilled pub glass brought a fairly respectable presentation of a caramel, amber colored clear brew. Plenty of bubbles abound here with a suitable 1 finger head of floof. It only stuck around for maybe two minutes though. But hey, things were not looking too bad here so far for longhammer ipa. Let's see what's next shall we?

Aroma, hmmmmm. Citrus? Grapefruit? A little hard to put a standard, hard line description here. Some floral is present and grapefruit as well but with something just a little bit "off" for an Indian Pale Ale. What exactly it is, I couldn't put my finger on it. Stale perhaps? Can't be for a brew this brand new though, right?

Upon first sip, I perceived alot of zest to this one. A little bit harsh in a pungent sort of way. There is the standard IPA sense of citrus and hops, but for whatever reason, this microbrew wreaks quite a bit of alcohol presence. Upon review the now empty glass bottle, I realize this brew is only clocking in at 6.5% alcohol by volume. Not exactly over the top. It takes away, however,from what little uniqueness this IPA offers.

Not a great India Pale Ale in its own right, I'd have to say the alcohol sting only sets this brew back even a little further from those I'd consider the benchmarks that I've tried in my brief microbrew sampling history.

If you enjoy microbrew beers, and india pale ale craft beers in particular, I'd say that the Longhammer India Pale Ale is probably not going to ultimately live up to your overall expectations in IPA's. It's probably not going to become your instant favorite IPA but it's still probably worth a try on your part just to be sure. I'll try the second bottle I purchased and will update this review accordingly if I find anything earth shatteringly different in the second bottle.

To their credit, redhook ale brewery has a history and a reputation of producing some very excellent microbrewed beers over the years. I have enjoyed there beers for sometime now, and while they're now my favorite as far as microbreweries go, I know that Redhook Ale Brewery can, and does product far better beers than this. I'm going to put this one down as a 5.75 out of 10.00 in my microbrew rating book. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.


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