Lunch by Maine Beer Company
Lunch is an IPA by Maine Beer Company. They have been making some very nice hop forward beers, a bit of a novelty here in Maine where English styles tend to dominate. I decided to try this after trying MO.
Appearance: well carbonated, the head resolves slowly, and the lacing lasts to the bottom of the glass. A copper/orange color, slight haze.
Aroma: spicy, resinous, herbal hops. Not as much citrus as I usually expect.
Taste: resinous taste that coats the tongue. There is some malt sweetness to balance, but not too much. I don’t get much of a crystal taste. The beer is very hoppy, but not overly bitter, the hops are more on the nose and on the tongue, but not at the back. It finishes with a slight, drying, bitterness.
Mouthfeel: Nice body, not too light, with some dextrins to round it out. The hops also seem to leave a resinous coating that enhances the fuller feel.
Critique: A very well done IPA. I like the hops quite a bit, not as much of the citrus, seemed more resinous and herbal. The balance is good, it is not too sweet, but still some malt there. I enjoyed this beer very much, and would definitely seek it out again.
Upon further searching, I see someone got a list of the hops and an idea of the malt bill. The hops are Warrior, Centennial, Simcoe, and Amarillo. This kind of surprises me, as I got much more of an herbal/piney flavor, and I think of more fruity notes, particularly citrus and tropical fruit flavors with most of those hops. However, I have not used Warrior, and what I have read reports it as both lemony and piney, so that maybe where the pine is coming from. The Vienna makes sense, the beer had a decent malt backbone, but I did not get too much caramel in it. Some of the scuttle butt about MO is that it was actually a version of Lunch with a different hop schedule. Now, I want to go back and try them side by side.
Filed under: Tastings
