Blind Beer Review

In the interest of expanding my beer horizons I decided to do a blind review of a beer from the fridge. I bought two mixed sixers the other day and don't remember all the specifics of what I got so this isn't the most blind review for that reason.

It's a good looking beer with a dark brown color that's very opaque. I got about a finger of head initially, although there's less in the picture after it faded some, and, as you can see on the right side, some nice lacing.

The aroma comes off as that of a very hoppy and sweet beer. At this point I'm definitely assuming IPA or possibly a hoppy barleywine. It resembles what I remember of Bigfoot (my knowledge of the fridge betrays me here. I'm almost positive I didn't buy any barleywines). There's a good amount of pine, sweet orange, and most prominently toffee/caramel. The taste takes mostly the same direction, with the caramel more subdued by pine and grapefruit pith flavors. This is quite a hot beer- I'm guessing the alcohol is around 8%, anything less and they didn't hide it very well. The bitterness of the hops is particularly gripping in the aftertaste giving it a quality I associate with Arrogant Bastard.

Overall this is a good beer if you're into full flavored hops and toffee. I generally like my IPAs to be more fruity and a little less full bodied, but if I consider it a barleywine it fits the bill pretty well for that- so maybe I shouldn't complain.

And the secret revealed is...

Green Flash Hop Head Red
I'm a little confused as to which beer this is exactly, but I think I recently reviewed it (BA has a Hop Head Red Ale, as well as a Hop Head Red IPA which this bottle advertises, but only has a handful of reviews. The Greenflash website on the other hand, only lists the IPA and not the ale which has a bazillion BA reivews. Anyway...)

Here's my non-blind review- it's interesting (and bad for my credibility as a beer reviewer) how different the two are (though maybe they're different beers. see above)

A- Pours brown with a lot of small carbonation bubbles- almost looks like it's a nitro beer. A full finger of head and some lacing, but not really interesting lacing.

S- This one's out of the gate with a nice strong aroma. Dank hops, caramel, malt syrup fading into brown sugar, some grass.

T- Lots of malt, like a brown nut syrup. And lots of hops, like grapefruit pith juice.

M- The bitterness is high on this one. It is definitely stronger than the taste would indicate which I'm not so high on, though it does fit my expectations of a red ale, so there's that.

O- A powerful beer that has a lot of flavors to sift through and digest, but still doesn't feel heavy or as alcoholic as it is. A nice example of the style.