By Greg B. While moving my new IPA from the primary to the secondary, I could not resist trying a small sample.  Sure, it’s not carbonated, or really that much cleared, but it smelled just so damn good, that I had to check it out.  And it was fantastic!  The nose as huge, a giant whiff of citrus and herbs smacked me right in the face, and the taste was smooth, slightly sweet (just begging to be carbonated and smooth).  So, I decided I should do a quick taste test of the IPAs I had one hand: my brand new, uncarbonated IPA, a Dogfish head 90 min, and my old Mother’s Milk IPA.

I lined them up and poured out small samples, one for me and one for a hop-head friend of mine.  To be honest, they looked really pretty together, lined up.  And it was amazing to see all the different colors of the beers, brewed in a similar style.  These are very different styles of IPA, however.  As for the Dogfish head 90 minute, this is a much more aromatic hop IPA, compared to the 60 minute which has a bit more bitters that hit the mouth (my guess is the 90 min has a more equal balance of malts).  I was excited to check out the mother’s Milk IPA, since the last time I tried this was back in October.  Knowing that hoppy beers don’t retain their aromatics very well, and that this beer was big on the aromatics and not so much the bitters, I was excited to see how this beer changed over time.  And of course, there is the new beer (in the photo, the beer in the glass).

So I poured out small samples, about 4 ounces per glass of each kind of beer and lined them up.  They really actually looked very nice on the counter and covered a nice range of color, from a light gold color from the new IPA to the dark amber for the Mothers Milk, and with the 90 min right in the middle with a beautiful amber color.  The nose on the beers was beautiful.  The new IPA has a big citrus component, Dogfish head 90 minute has a bitter component to the nose, definitely a hoppy floral aroma and even some nice smelling darker malts on the nose.  The Mother’s Milk actually had…almost no hop aroma!     There was that floral hop component right at the end of the nose, but it was lacking that original smell that was so appealing.  That being said, it was a beautiful nose, with darker toffee or dark roasted malts on the nose.

As for taste, it was difficult to compare the new IPA with the others, simply because of the lack of carbonation.  However, my new IPA goes down real smooth, with a little sweet/bitter thing going on.  Surprisingly, there are really a tiny amount of bitters that I can taste, which seems odd given the potential 122 IBUs this beer was going to have from boiling the simcoe hops!  The Dogfish head was next and of course, was fantastic.  The beer has a nice lacing on the side of the glass from the head and really showed off some of the nicer malts and even toasted malts on the tongue.  My Mother’s Milk IPA smelled very much like it tasted, a really delicious dunkel or so.  A lot of chocolate came through on the finish, and the taste really was smooth and with a little creaminess. In all, these beers really were very different.  The Dogfish head 90 min and my beer seem like they are on the same spectrum, with mine having a massive floral aroma (go Challenger hops!) and not so many bitters, and the 90 min having a more bitter aroma, but having a very nice, soft taste with a lot of flavor.  The Mother’s Milk IPA would be a disappointed IPA, but is in itself a great and delicious beer.  You’ve gotta love a hobby that, if you fail to reach your mark, lets you end up something something just as good!!