Tröegs Perpetual IPA

Another beer from the land of chocolate and coldness - Hershey, PA. I have had Tröegs beers before, and I know what they are capable of, so I can only hope that they formulated an IPA worthy of their name. I know most people outside of Pennsylvania have never heard of them, but that used to be true for Rolling Rock and Yuengling.

The very foamy beer has a white top with a clear yellow-gold liquid under it all. The aroma of hops overwhelms everything in the area when the beer starts to aerosolize as it pours. This certainly bodes well for a beer that claims to feature hops - that hops are the only feature from the aroma that I can make out. They are pine hops with some floral backing, and citrus hops spring forward quite a bit - but late.

First sip is bitter, but there is a sweetness to the malt that swims in the deep end to reduce the overall impact of the bitterness. This allows the flavors to assert themselves a lot more than if the bitterness were to overwhelm everything. Instead, I get a caramel malt behind the citrus, pine, and slight floral hops. It's a bit simple as an IPA, but it's not bad. Let's gulp.

Tip-in is very light carbonation tingle with the caramel malt and the bitterness lingering around the mango and orange hops. The middle spreads out into an amazingly smooth hop-laced deliciousness that I never expected and holy crap how good this is. The finish is a wave of bitterness with sweetness from the malt still left on the lips.

Bottom Line: Unassuming at first, this pops with a character many beers aspire to have.

4.0/5