All About Beer Magazine

Beer Talk

Hop Meadow IPA

Thomas Hooker Brewing Co.
West Hartford, CT

Available: CT, MA, RI, ME, NY, PA, GA

A beer modeled after some West Coast IPAs, but brewed with English malts.

ABV: 6.3
ABW: 5
Color: 22
Bitterness: 73
Gravity: 1067

• Garrett Oliver

  A surprising deep copper color, reaching for brown, with a thin tan head. The hop aromas are minty and fresh in the nose, though fairly muted. The hop attack comes on the palate: a broad, scouring wave of bitterness that relents for just a second in the middle, letting caramel malts through. The malt door closes and it’s all hops in the lingering finish. The label gives no ABV, but it tastes strong. If you like ‘em very bitter, try this with a fiery Malaysian beef satay.

• Roger Protz

  A copper-colored beer with a massive sultana fruit nose and a big bready and yeasty note. Bitter hops burst on the tongue with spicy and peppery notes balancing the rich malt. The finish is deep and complex, increasingly bitter and hoppy, with burnt fruit and juicy malt. In style, more of an English Bitter than an IPA.