Origin: USA
Type: IPA
Color: Amber
Alcohol content: 6.8%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Today I'm going to write about what I can honestly say was the best IPA I tried this summer, the Hoptical Illusion.
This beer was also the last US beer I tried this summer, having had it at the airport just before boarding the plane on my way back to Spain. Needless to say it made me really sad to leave.
It's amber orange in color and develops an average amount of foam. Its smell is a perfect mix of all that's good in an IPA with hints of pine, citrus and slightly sweeter tropical-like fruits. This makes it very hard not to take a very big swig every time you bring it up to your nose.... and as a result, I wound up having to drink two of them straight.
I was also helped in this task by its taste. Extremely easy to drink, it replicates more or less the same flavors in your mouth as the smells you get from it. You get a big chunk of pine and bitterness at the beginning, which gradually gives way to a more fruity taste. This fruitiness also evolves in your mouth, going from citrusy orange to a more tropical sweet type of fruit which I cannot really put my finger on.
This sweet fruitiness balances out the bitterness in a way you would more expect to find in an imperial IPA than your average IPA. I suppose that's the reason behind the name, you get a strong clean hoppy bitterness at the beginning, but it suddenly disappears like a magician's illusion.
The bitterness is however far from gone and, as you swallow, you are left with your original piney bitterness in the back of your throat.
Big unabashed hoppy bitterness, soft and balanced fruitiness... and a bitter smack in the face when you've let your guard down. It's kind of as if you were having brutal and slightly kinky sex with it. It's caressing you with one hand and pulling your hair with the other. Plus it's pretty and smells good. What more can you want from it?
This sweet fruitiness balances out the bitterness in a way you would more expect to find in an imperial IPA than your average IPA. I suppose that's the reason behind the name, you get a strong clean hoppy bitterness at the beginning, but it suddenly disappears like a magician's illusion.
The bitterness is however far from gone and, as you swallow, you are left with your original piney bitterness in the back of your throat.
Big unabashed hoppy bitterness, soft and balanced fruitiness... and a bitter smack in the face when you've let your guard down. It's kind of as if you were having brutal and slightly kinky sex with it. It's caressing you with one hand and pulling your hair with the other. Plus it's pretty and smells good. What more can you want from it?
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