Island Reserve: HBC 342 Hopsicle Ale - Cisco Brewers Inc.

smcolw

Massachusetts

4/5  rDev +9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4

Huge 3/4 of the glass head. Settles slowly, leaving peaks of foam and chunks of lace on the glass. Plenty of yeast in the otherwise dirty gold colored broth.

An interesting blend of flowery hop, earthiness, raw grain and yeast.

Strong yeast presence in this beer, like a home-brew. This dominates the malt flavors. Black pepper-like hop in the finish. Leaves a long bitter aftertaste. Rich body, low carbonation.

Serving type: bottle

05-18-2013 18:52:52 | More by smcolw

Powderhornphil

Minnesota

3.5/5  rDev -4.6%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Pours a cloudy yellow. Sort of like a cloudy pineapple juice. Several fingers of head. Head is not dense at all. I don't mind the cloudiness, but would like a little more caramel color. Recedes to leave almost not lacing. Likely due to the buckwheat.

Smell is juicy grapefruit. Some pineapple. A wheaty aroma is in there as well.

Hops, both juicy and bitter. Juicy grapefruit, some tropical notes follow. I feel this could use a little more caramel malt sweetness. There is a slight bready sourness on the finish.

Fairly carbonated here. Pretty light an refreshing.

Overall it's not something I would seek out again but nice to try. It seems that 75 percent of the malt here is buckwheat. A lot of the characteristics seem be from the buckwheat malt.

I would like to try this hop variety with an all-barley malt bill.

Serving type: bottle

12-22-2012 01:44:58 | More by Powderhornphil

PeterIngemi

Massachusetts

4.03/5  rDev +9.8%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Poured from a 750ml into a dfh snifter

A: pours a super hazy pale golden yellow with two frothy finger of white head. Amazing retention as the head settles to half a finger, along with globs of lacing.... Looks pretty awesome.

S: dry buckwheat and piney hops, some light citrus hop notes on the aroma as well. Grapefruit, tangerine. Pleasant nose, smells dry and juicy at the same time.

T: very nice tropical fruit hop notes tangerine, pinneapple, grapefruit along with some serious pine bitterness and dry buckwheat. This is deffiantly a hopsicle, I feel like I'm sucking on hops.

M: deffiantly on the dry and bitter side of things, with medium mouthfeel and carbonation, dry finish leavs lingering hops resin coating in the mouth.

O: this is an interesting brew, very dry and bitter. I kinda like the way the buckwheat worked with this experimental hop strain. Deffinately worth trying if your a hophead

Serving type: bottle

12-15-2012 05:12:26 | More by PeterIngemi