I know that I have been favorably reviewing a lot of big IPAs for someone who recently claimed to have mixed feelings about the style (contradicting myself like Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass all over the place!). I promise to cover a more balanced array of styles in the future, but I've got another palate punisher for all you hop heads out there today.
Pipeworks Citra Ninja is a double IPA that features the wonderful aroma of Citra hops (If you thought Amarillo was as bright and tangeriney as a hop can get, think again.). Pipeworks usually hits it out of the park with intense dry hopping and interesting flavors; their Galaxy Unicorn is one of the best beers that I have ever tasted. I do hesitate to recommend Citra Ninja, however. Perhaps I should have known what I was getting into based on the title, but this sucker assassinated my taste buds with an arrow and throwing star barrage of bitterness.
Appearance:
Decanted from a 22 oz bottle into a fluted goblet. Beautiful deep gold; 7 or 8 on the SRM scale. Steady carbonation. Thick nest of foamy head; nice lacing. Bottle conditioned, so not perfectly clear, but opaque and not chunky. Looks moderately viscous on the side of the glass, but not as much as expected for a beer of this ABV (9.5%).
Aroma:
Pineapple, peaches, grapefruit, passionfruit, tangerine, Meyer lemon. The malt doesn't really make it past the fruity overtones.
Body and Texture:
Astringent, bracingly hoppy. Not as heavy of a mouthfeel as I expected. Alcoholic and sharp.
Aftertaste:
Lemon oil and peppery up front; heavy bittering hops (Chinook?). Doesn't ease up; really scorches the palate with bitter resins. Sen-Sen bite clings fast to the tongue.
Overall:
I usually like more citrus forward IPAs (as opposed to those that are piney or cloyingly malty), but this one begs for more sweetness as a foil to the formidable hop presence. The green apple skin astringency is intense. On the plus side, if I was eating Szechuan or Thai food, this would not be a bad choice to katana through the heat. Pot stickers dunked in sriracha would be fun to eat with Citra Ninja. It's one of the nicest smelling hoppy beers that I have encountered, but it definitely lacks balance on the palate.
Please do not let this review turn you off to Pipeworks. As I said, Galaxy Unicorn is out of this world, and their Standard Issue IPA is lots fun as well.
