Sam Adams Double Agent IPL

IPL="India Pale Lager," or a hoppy lager.  This is the last of the new/never-tried-before beers in their spring mix pack.  I wrote this in March.

Name:                 Sam Adams Double Agent IPL

Style:                   Some sort of lager

Twist:                  Some sort of lager hopped like an IPA

Strength:             5% alcohol

Notes: poured from a 12oz bottle into my Boston Lager glass.  Came with this year’s “Spring Thaw” mixed 12-pack.  IPL=”India Pale Lager.”

Well, it looks like a lager….I guess.    The color is a few shades lighter than the classic Sierra Nevada copper.  It is a bit less carbonated than it should be, which is probably the fault of the dishwasher, not the beer.    Foam is the standard brewer’s white with decent retention, though it never really gets above a quarter-finger in height.

Aroma is a fairly straightforward take on the classic West Coast IPA.  Your basic pine and grapefruit rind, in other words.  At 5% alcohol, nothing really stands out, but I think that’s the point.

The flavor profile is an odd but appetizing dish of grapefruit and pine (expected); saaz-y, pilsner-y malt flavor, slight metallic note included (somewhat expected); and the aftertaste of MGD (not expected).  There is a subtle hint of soap, which could actually be the hops---or it could just once again be dishwasher fail.  The mouthfeel is medium with a fairly clean bitterness that just lasts for a little while.

Not bad, something I could and likely will drink again.  I can’t help but wonder how much better it would have been if they had taken the texture and color more in the direction of a pilsner but taken the hops more in the direction of a Zombie Dust or an Illumination.  I’m really just waiting and crossing my fingers for a Citra-hopped pilsner in the 4%-5.5% alcohol range, but this will be fine in the meantime.