Fat Tug IPA - Driftwood Brewery

liamt07

Ontario (Canada)

4.13/5  rDev -5.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Bottle sampled at Volo, poured into a flute glass.

Poured a golden yellow, filtered with a great fluffy and sticky offwhite head. Webbed lacing and solid retention. Nose is big on the citrus hops, orange, tangerine, grapefruit, with some understated pineiness in there as well. Sits atop a solid caramel malt base. Great nose. Taste is quite bitter initially, more pine and less citrus than the nose suggested. Really wasn't expecting this given the nose, but was pleasant otherwise. Prickly carbonation, and good drinkability. A nice IPA, wish I could've had a bigger sample of this.

Serving type: bottle

04-06-2011 16:25:53 | More by liamt07

EduardoOrtega01

Panama

5/5  rDev +14.7%

05-22-2013 21:10:13 | More by EduardoOrtega01

beertunes

Washington

4/5  rDev -8.3%

05-20-2013 18:01:29 | More by beertunes

Caudalie

Quebec (Canada)

4.25/5  rDev -2.5%

05-10-2013 16:55:32 | More by Caudalie

KStark

British Columbia (Canada)

4/5  rDev -8.3%

05-10-2013 14:47:24 | More by KStark

Thunderpants

British Columbia (Canada)

5/5  rDev +14.7%
look: 5 | smell: 5 | taste: 5 | feel: 5 | overall: 5

Wow what a beer! The best IPA I have ever had, and to this day I still haven't found one that compares. Amazing intense hoppy profile with hints of fruity flavours and a touch of malt.

If you like hoppy, then this beer is for you, but be careful at 7% alcohol this beer will get you going in a hurry. I only recommend 2 per sitting then try something else.

Currently my favorite beer!

Serving type: bottle

05-06-2013 21:28:07 | More by Thunderpants

IllNate

British Columbia (Canada)

4.16/5  rDev -4.6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 5 | overall: 4

Pours a very clear amber with mountains of off white head, excellent retention. Aroma is hoppy with citrus dominating (grapefruit, and some melon). Taste follows with great hop character, ranging from citrus to pine and earthy at times. Malty background is solid with some caramel sweetness. Mouthfeel is bitter, but extreemly well balanced, I say perfect. Overall a solid IPA, one of my favorite IPAs.

Serving type: bottle

04-27-2013 02:43:07 | More by IllNate

KeKeKumba

Ontario (Canada)

3.75/5  rDev -14%

04-04-2013 04:09:55 | More by KeKeKumba

IanSpindler

Alberta (Canada)

4.5/5  rDev +3.2%

03-30-2013 19:09:46 | More by IanSpindler

maximum12

Minnesota

3.88/5  rDev -11%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thanks to Rutager for sending this extra from one of my favorite locals in North America, Vancouver. 22 oz. bottle split with my wife while watching the end of The Truman Show, which happenend to be our first date. Well, second first date. Nevermind.

Pour is an unclear but not hazy orange with gentled carbonation. Nose is a fall cornucopia of fruits: honeydew, grapefruit, orange, pale malts. Going in the correct direction.

Fat Tug begs for a comment, so I'm not going to make one. Lovely hops on this babe, reaching out & giving the tongue a good shlap of bitterness, followed with fainter flavors of pine, citrus. The bitterness doing the tugging here. Nice pale malts, light sweetness. Drinkable. I could do this bomber.

Nice IPA that showcases bitterness, but without a whole lot of complexity. Luckily, that's my favorite part of an IPA. Very good beer.

Serving type: bottle

03-27-2013 02:47:33 | More by maximum12

kelvarnsen

Ontario (Canada)

4.25/5  rDev -2.5%

03-08-2013 22:27:00 | More by kelvarnsen

MatthewPlus

Florida

4.5/5  rDev +3.2%

03-06-2013 20:30:59 | More by MatthewPlus

LampertLand

British Columbia (Canada)

4/5  rDev -8.3%

03-06-2013 06:02:26 | More by LampertLand

PeerlessMark

Ontario (Canada)

4.75/5  rDev +8.9%

02-20-2013 22:49:08 | More by PeerlessMark

DaPan

Ontario (Canada)

4.75/5  rDev +8.9%

02-14-2013 12:32:01 | More by DaPan

smekermann

British Columbia (Canada)

4.5/5  rDev +3.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.75 | overall: 4.5

Picked up a bottle of this at a BCLS earlier this wonderful evening. Unfortunately, Driftwood doesn't yet date their bottles, so I have no idea how fresh this is. Given that this IPA is somewhat hop-heavy, that is somewhat important and should probably be rectified sooner rather than later.

I'm fairly familiar with this beer. Actually, I guess I should rephrase that: I thought I was familiar with this beer. It had a nice hop profile and proved to be really easy drinking for being 7% ABV, although as time went on, I found it to be somewhat bottom-heavy. The initial mouthfeel was great, but the aftertaste was a bit too bitter and not as crisp as some of the IPAs I'd had from the golden land of Californy. In the interim, I even took a trip down to San Francisco in January and overloaded on some pretty amazing IPAs and DIPAs. I came back to BC thinking that BC IPAs would never compare to the stuff I'd had down there. For the most part, I was right. Central City IPA was a bit too malty and I had to double check the can to make sure I didn't pick up the ESB on accident, the hop profile being less impressive than I had remembered; Switchback IPA was better, with a nice hop profile, citrusy and piny and crisp, although it had a very familiar beta acid bitterness on the end of the aftertaste.

And then I finally found a bottle of Fat Tug IPA. I approached it with apprehension. Before my trip to CA, I viewed it as a great IPA -- one of the best brewed in BC, alongside Hop Therapy (different classes, obviously). I didn't want to ruin that impression. As it turns out, my fears were completely misplaced, because this is an even better beer than I remembered it to be. I'm not sure if it was just because I had a really fresh bottle (and with BCLS, it's really hard to tell, not to mention they don't refrigerate their beers) or they tweaked the recipe or what, but it surprised the hell out of me.

The appearance is a somewhat hazy golden amber with a pretty great off-white head and lacing on the glass. The initial smell is a gorgeous citrusy hop smell, with some bready malts way at the back. The taste is really crisp citrus hops. As you allow the taste to permeate, you begin to notice a fairly solid malt backing that adds a great balance to the beer (something that I'd never really noticed before). The aftertaste was surprisingly light and fairly crisp. Like I said, this was pretty astounding to me as I remember the aftertaste being a lot heavier and way more bitter but, again, I'm not sure if it's just due to the fact that I had a really fresh bottle or if Driftwood tweaked their recipe any. Driftwood plz add bottling dates to your IPAs ok thanks :(

Overall, I'm really glad I revisited this beer. It used to be really good for BC IPAs, now I can say with certainty that it's better than most of the IPAs I've had in the Pacific Northwest and maybe only a notch or so below the best (single) IPAs found in Southern California. This seems like a somewhat back-handed compliment but it really isn't. Trust me.

Edit: as of March 2013, Driftwood has started printing bottling dates on the cap of their beers. Truly the Best Brewery.

Serving type: bottle

02-08-2013 09:19:45 | More by smekermann

bigbeerd

British Columbia (Canada)

4.25/5  rDev -2.5%

02-03-2013 07:00:32 | More by bigbeerd

wesbray

Alberta (Canada)

4/5  rDev -8.3%

01-20-2013 04:27:55 | More by wesbray

spycow

Illinois

4.25/5  rDev -2.5%

01-14-2013 01:06:28 | More by spycow

510a

Washington

4.25/5  rDev -2.5%

01-12-2013 17:41:33 | More by 510a

JonnyBeers

British Columbia (Canada)

5/5  rDev +14.7%

01-11-2013 18:18:14 | More by JonnyBeers

cmadd

Ontario (Canada)

4.5/5  rDev +3.2%

01-09-2013 07:13:28 | More by cmadd

sansho

Tennessee

4/5  rDev -8.3%

12-19-2012 18:59:04 | More by sansho

jbtheman

New York

4.5/5  rDev +3.2%

12-08-2012 15:28:57 | More by jbtheman

KalanM

British Columbia (Canada)

4.75/5  rDev +8.9%

11-29-2012 02:12:56 | More by KalanM