India Pale Ale Centennial Topaz Stella - The Kernel Brewery

flyingpig

United Kingdom (Scotland)

4.45/5  rDev +2.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

330ml Bottle from Vino Wines, Edinburgh (£3.15):
Cloudy looking, orange amber colour with a thumb sized, wavy looking white head that has a bubbly appearance and stays pretty well.

Pine hops and some grapefruit with a stronger than usual tropical fruit aroma that shines through. There is some good fruity notes with some mango, orange and citrus fruits as well as a little spice. This one is also very well balanced on the nose with touches of apricot toward the tail end of the beer.

Bitter hops with pine and grapefruit complimenting them followed by plenty of tropical fruits and sweetness with apricot, orange and mango all featuring. There is a nice citrus flavouring in there as well and the balance is excellent.

Medium bodied and very refreshing with a lot of pine bitterness and some sweet, fruity notes to it. There is a moderate amount of carbonation and the finish is slightly dry and bitter.

Up there with the best IPA's I have tried and certainly one of the best English beers I have reviewed here. This one started very fruity with good pine and grapefruit helpings that went down great and were very refreshing. A perfect example of the style, falling somewhere in between a regular and a double IPA.

Serving type: bottle

02-13-2013 14:34:40 | More by flyingpig

StJamesGate

New York

4.21/5  rDev -3.2%
look: 4 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.25

Amber-tinged gold with white froth that rims a bit and rings.
Nose is straight fresh hop oil with flowers, orange skin and bit of herbal spice - intense.
Light breadiness with some fresh apricot then a fruit melange of nectarine, tangerine, lime sherbet and papaya with some pink peppercorn and pine resin.
Caraway and grapefruit rind finish and humming herbal linger.
Light to medium, oily, round, good bit of chew.

Doesn't quite live up to the nose, but that would be hard. And I'm not getting so much of the individual character I've read about for Stella (tobacco) and Topaz (earthy) though there's definitely some intricate spice. Aside from that, though, fabulous.

Kernel doesn't disappoint.

Serving type: bottle

02-16-2013 00:15:30 | More by StJamesGate