Semi Final 1Goose Island India Pale Ale 5.9% abv
Brooklyn East India Pale Ale 6.9% abv
The Goose Island is seeded No1 and so is the beer to beat here. The plucky Brooklyn dispatched the popular Sierra Nevada Pale ale and is no slouch.
Colourwise the Chicago native is almost lager-like in the glass and as usual, the Goose Island is quite fabulous, so well balanced and hoppy it's gonna be tough to beat. So, sip of water and let's try the Brooklyn EIPA. Nope, this ain't gonna do it. It has a slight bitterness on the front of the tongue that I don't quite care for (picky!), and it just isn't as smooth...
Winner - Goose Island India Pale Ale
Semi Final 2Thwaites Indus Pale Ale 4.6% abv
Thornbridge Jaipur India Pale Ale 5.9% abv
As I mentioned last time, I loved Jaipur when I lived in Auld Reekie, and the Indus I liked last time but didn't love, so I thought this one would be a no-brainer. But the Indus shows up well here, it's got a nice bitterness and I'd be happy to drink it any other day. The Jaipur shades it though, it's got a tiny touch of malty sweetness that offsets the hoppiness and the flavours work really well together.
Winner - Thornbridge Jaipur India Pale Ale
On not-unrelated note. I think I'm seeing a pattern in the IPA's that I'm really grokking, let's see how the full semi-final line-up looks like and we'll see if I'm correct.
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