Vicious American Wheat IPA - North Peak Brewing Company

beachbum1975

Ohio

3.8/5  rDev -1%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Saw this sixer at my local beer stop, so I decided to try it out. $9.99 a six pack.

Pours a nice reddish bronze with an off-white head. Nice sticky legs with decent head retention.

Fresh, moderately aggressive hop profile. Fresh citrus. Medium body and medium flavor profile.

Pretty nice overall. I'd drink it again.

Serving type: bottle

03-16-2011 00:19:38 | More by beachbum1975

Alextricity

Michigan

4.16/5  rDev +8.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

$2.19 single bottled 5/17/13. Poured in a Sam Adams Perfect Pint on 6/17/13.

Appearance: First of all, I love the bottle -- it has that stubby, Red Stripe-like bottle, if you didn't know already. The beer pours a very slightly hazy orange color with about two fingers of head. Great lacing at the start, but none after the first few sips.

Smell: Very, very sweet to my nose. Candy-like sweetness. There's also some citrus aromas in there, and the sweetness almost makes this smell like clementine candy, or something like that. Pleasant, but I don't get the bursting hops that I was expecting.

Taste: At first I didn't think this drank like an IPA, but then I wondered what other style it tastes like ... I GUESS it's an IPA. A lot of sweetness up front with some sorts of non-descript citrus flavors... maybe some banana or something as well. The bitterness comes in on the aftertaste, and it's the perfect amount for this beer. I don't get much wheat flavors at all outside of the first few sips... if it wasn't on the label, I'd probably not realize it was there at all. The feel is medium through and through... the beer has a solid body to it, and there's a slight prickly carbonation. This sentence here is a bit out of place, but I wanted to mention that Vicious changes in taste quite a bit as it warms. I tend to find that a beer gets sweeter when it warms up (especially if it was initially sweet when it was just out of the fridge), but this one gets a bit of a stronger bitter bite. The wheat character also comes out slightly, but it's still not *obviously* there -- but maybe that's for the better. It probably is.

Basically, I'd like another. It's slightly more expensive than some IPAs out there, but this is yet another tasty Michigan brew. I give Vicious an overall of 4 simply because, as good as it is, it may be a bit too sweet for my tastes when craving an IPA. At the same time, this beer is just balanced enough that it'd be an easy beer to drink a lot of. That's a pretty inconsistent statement, but my point is made: Vicious is a good beer.

Serving type: bottle

06-17-2013 13:14:48 | More by Alextricity

HardyA

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

06-13-2013 23:49:33 | More by HardyA

Brew33

Ohio

3.25/5  rDev -15.4%

06-12-2013 23:24:33 | More by Brew33

shamrock071521

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -8.9%

06-10-2013 19:50:10 | More by shamrock071521

rkf1976

Michigan

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

05-24-2013 11:06:03 | More by rkf1976

HarmonMW

Michigan

4/5  rDev +4.2%

05-14-2013 23:02:30 | More by HarmonMW

bushbeer75

Michigan

3.78/5  rDev -1.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.75

12 oz stubby brown bottle dated December 7, 2012

North Peak Vicious American Wheat IPA poured a cloudy orange gold peach color into my pint glass. A nice creamy foamy off-white head was produced that held well and formed foamy strips of lacing. The nose was dominated by citrus and piney hops with light wheat in the background. The taste is similar to the nose with the dry hops dominating, however, the wheat malt helps balance the flavor and keeps the 72 IBU's from becoming too over powering. Not being a hophead I appreciated this. The mouth feel is smooth, creamy, medium bodied and a nice lively [almost prickly at times] carbonation.

Vicious is an easy drinking American IPA with just enough hops for this non-hophead.

Serving type: bottle

04-01-2013 18:23:48 | More by bushbeer75

Chris77McGrath

Ohio

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

03-19-2013 17:31:00 | More by Chris77McGrath

JimmyFlatRock

Ohio

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

03-05-2013 02:09:10 | More by JimmyFlatRock

johnnydicfore

Ohio

2.25/5  rDev -41.4%

02-12-2013 23:43:11 | More by johnnydicfore

fluidmotion

Ohio

4/5  rDev +4.2%

02-09-2013 15:10:37 | More by fluidmotion

ssimpson89

Illinois

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

02-09-2013 03:42:56 | More by ssimpson89

cmeinz

Ohio

4/5  rDev +4.2%

02-03-2013 16:37:04 | More by cmeinz

TheBedrosian

4.75/5  rDev +23.7%

01-21-2013 00:46:29 | More by TheBedrosian

Bitter_Echo

Michigan

4/5  rDev +4.2%

01-19-2013 23:17:59 | More by Bitter_Echo

atomicbeer

New Mexico

3.41/5  rDev -11.2%
look: 3.25 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25

Picked up at the Jolly Pumpkin in Ann Arbor MI as part of a mixed six pack. Pours an orange-amber with a one inch very slightly orange off-white head. Head sticks around as a thin cap. Aroma is sugared citrus, a hint of pine bark, and sticky sweet malt. Mainly orange and grapefruit with a bit of cherry. Flavor has all the elements of the aroma plus toasted wheat bread and spice. Medium carbonation. Maybe a bit too sticky sweet? Ok but will likely not be having again.

Serving type: bottle

01-13-2013 20:52:39 | More by atomicbeer

Googs

New York

3.75/5  rDev -2.3%

12-22-2012 14:45:52 | More by Googs

TimRoss41

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev +10.7%

12-10-2012 03:45:43 | More by TimRoss41

rolandboy

Michigan

3.25/5  rDev -15.4%

11-26-2012 04:21:47 | More by rolandboy

ctrevino

Indiana

3.5/5  rDev -8.9%

10-26-2012 18:19:47 | More by ctrevino

StoutHunter

Michigan

3.2/5  rDev -16.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

I picked up a bottle of North Peak's Vicious American Wheat IPA last week for $1.79 at The Lager Mill. I haven't seen this beer before and North Peak usually does a pretty good at hoppy beers so lets see how it goes. Bottled September 5th 2012. Poured from a stubby brown bottle into an imperial pint glass.

A- It's got the typical North Peak label with a weird little werewolf on it, it poured a nice and hazy orange color that took on a bright amber hue when held to the light with two fingers worth of off white head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and left some nice rings of lacing. This is a good looking beer, I have no complaints.

S- The aroma starts off with some nice caramel malt aromas that have have a fairly high amount of sweetness and impart some bread and biscuit like aromas. Up next comes a large amount of hops that are mainly citrus and impart some nice citrus aromas with grapefruit and pineapple seeming to stick out the most. The aroma was good and full of hops, but I would have liked some wheat aromas to balance out some of those hops, but it still has a pretty nice aroma.

T- The taste seems to be pretty similar to the aroma and it starts off with a lighter amount of caramel malts that have a medium amount of sweetness and impart some light bread, bread crust, and biscuit like flavors. Next up comes the hops that quickly show up and and are mainly citrus with a slight pine and floral aspect with grapefruit rind seeming to stick out the most, On the finish it has a medium amount of bitterness with a grapefruit rind like aftertaste. The taste seemed to be pretty average, the hop aspects were ok but I wish there was some actual wheat flavors to go along with it.

M- Fairly smooth, slightly dry, medium bodied, with a higher amount of medium carbonation that was slightly prickly. The Mouthfeel was ok but the carbonation was a little on the high side.

Overall I thought this beer was just ok and it's a pretty average example of the style, if I didn't look at the bottle I would be sure this was just an American IPA with no wheat in it because it didn't show up on the flavor or aroma. This beer had ok drinkability, it went down fairly smooth, but the flavors don't really hold my interest so I think one would be enough for me. What I liked the most about this beer was the appearance, it looked pretty good and it left some nice lacing. What I liked the least about this beer was the lack of wheat in the flavor and the aroma, without the wheat is just seemed one dimensional. I don't think I would buy this beer again, I would much rather have a Little Sumpin Sumpin from Lagunitas when in the mood for this style, but it is worth trying once if you don't mind hoppy beers. All in all I wasn't that impressed with this beer, the hops aspect wasn't that bad but the wheat never showed up, this beer doesn't really stick out in North Peaks lineup, it's a pretty run of the mill beer.

Serving type: bottle

10-13-2012 03:36:32 | More by StoutHunter

TGZ32

Michigan

4/5  rDev +4.2%

10-10-2012 03:12:06 | More by TGZ32

patpbr

Ohio

3.98/5  rDev +3.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Caught my eye at fifth street deli in Dayton, OH.
A-had some trouble getting a good pour. Sure that was skewed by my pour.
S- Never great at smells but like many IPAs
T- Interesting, grapefruit or something. it would appear some of the bitter is cut by the wheat?
M- Carbonation and a bit of bitter, a little sweet.
O- overall a good tasting ipa. I like to review a full six pack but one gave a good sample of a solid beer

Serving type: bottle

09-27-2012 03:28:29 | More by patpbr

Steimie

Michigan

3.5/5  rDev -8.9%

09-08-2012 22:04:59 | More by Steimie