Pope Crisco: BridgePort Hop Czar Imperial India Pale Ale

Good afternoon readers. Today has been a fairly unproductive couple of days here in Georgia. Despite that I am moving in less than 2 weeks I have taken the past two days to just tend to my wife who has injured her shoulder, and tend to my need for a break from the grind of packing and making arrangements for the move.

As part of my strong, not in the mood to do shit, lack of work ethic, I decided to have a post lunch beer or two. On the menu I have a few different choices, but have decided to go with the Bridgeport’s Imperial IPA, Hop Czar.

Pouring the 12 ounce bottle into a pint glass, the light copper hued beer creates a slightly off white head that fills the remaining 4oz of the vessel.

The nose is a hop lover’s heaven, shouting the joy of grapefruit leaning hop bitterness that carries onto the initial sip of the beer, opening up on the tongue with a sharp, hop forward, bitter flavor with a very slight maltiness on the backend.

Once the palate has become accustomed to the bitterness though, a bit more balance between hops and malts takes hold, although still hop forward. This allows greater depth to be perceived in the bitterness, adding additional citrus peel notes to the grapefruit body of flavor.

Taking into account the wonderful and complex flavors present in this beer, a wonderful body and excellent lacing, and a 7.5% ABV, this beer is easily in my top 5 favorite IPAs to experience.

I highly recommend that if you love hop first beers that you give this simply amazing ale a try.

Prost!
Pope Crisco