Stateside IPA (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

I can sometimes be a pretty lazy blogger. Take tonight for instance. It's fairly late on Friday evening. I've worked out like crazy in the kitchen, which has become my new gym every morning. My own gym has been closed for exactly four weeks today. This afternoon I've dozed amongst a little light reading and gaming. Then I find myself looking for a beer in the beer fridge before I have my evening bath after dinner. It can be a hard life being stuck inside all the time. Okay, so we go for a walk around the estate and nearby park area once a day, and I often go for a short jog to burn off more calories afterwards, but I really do miss the outside pool and sauna at my local gym.

So I'm lazy and looking for a helpful label on a beer that will give me more information than I usually need that will make me look like I know what I'm talking about. This Stateside IPA from the Buckhorn Brewery just happened to be staring right back at me from the front of the beer fridge. At 5.5% volume it's packed full of American style hops, such as Cascade, Admiral, Summit, Citra, Nelson Sauvin and Hellertau Blanc. It states on the can that Stateside IPA is brewed in small batches. I guess that's the rarity of the variety of hops involved in producing it. I have to admit that I haven't heard of or let alone probably tasted Nelson Sauvin and Hellertau Blanc hops before.

On popping open the can I was pleased and also relieved that the damn thing didn't explode everywhere. That happens to me way too often and I've probably worked out a little too hard today to be bothered to catch some frothing madness. I'm wishing we could have found a big steak for dinner, although the scampi was rather nice.

There was a mixture of strong herbal hops in the smell on first opening, as well as citrus hops in the background quickly followed by the aroma of sweet malted barley. This shining golden IPA cheerfully and fizzily poured into my waiting beer glass. On taste the biting bitterness from the herbal hops washed around my mouth tantalising my tastebuds. The citrus hops almost daintily followed those fresh crisp herbal hops, politely butting into the dance of flavours flowing around my mouth. The sweeter malts came towards the aftertaste smoothing out the sheer amount of beautiful flavoursome bitterness from those biting herbal hops and complementary citrus hops. Mmm… this is one of those slap-me-around my tastebuds late night waker-uppers that'll tickle my fancy for my gaming night later. Roll on the long hours into the grim dark whilst shooting those bad guys!