Summit Brewing Hopvale Organic Ale – A First Sampling

With the beginning of the 4-day weekend we like to call Easter, the timing to receive an exciting new beer from Summit Brewing couldn’t be more perfect….and naturally I couldn’t resist sampling it.

Of course I’m talking about the new Summit Brewing Hopvale Organic Ale, and before we talk beer, lets talk packaging.

Hopvale Organic Ale is packaged in 16oz cans that are available in 4-packs.  This beer is also available on draft, and the exciting news is that Hopvale will go year round.  The can looks great and I’ll admit I really prefer 16oz cans.  I’m sot sure if it’s just the additional beer or the way it feels in my hand…but in any case I think this packaging is a perfect fit for Hopvale.

As Summit says, this beer carries the “full-strength IPA” hop character, and that was obvious as soon as I poured the beer.  The nose is loaded with grapefruit and resinous pine and I was really surprised just how good the aromas held on.

As I expected, Hopvale can back up the aroma with loads of hoppy flavor.  It started for me with an orange/tangerine softer flavor up front, with dry grapefruit in the middle and with the sticky resinous and late lemon bringing up the rear.  This beer is loaded with flavor and body and I suspect the complexity would be even better if I would have been able to drink it slowly enough for it to warm.

Yes Hopvale is that easy-drinking and therein lies the surprise of this beer…..Hopvale comes in at a very sessionable 4.7%-AbV.  If you were blindfolded and tasted this beer, you’d never know it was a session IPA.  This beer carries itself like an IPA and the flavors and aromas certainly back that up.

As if that’s not enough, this year-round brew is organic with organic barley sourced from Montana and Wyoming and organic hops from Washington and Idaho.

Be sure to try this one for yourself and let me know what you think….and here are the vital stats for Summit Hopvale Organic Ale:

Malts: Organic Pale and Caramel 15

Hops: Organic Bravo, Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook

Kettle Additions: Organic Lemon Peel

ABV: 4.7%

IBUs: 55

Color: Sunrise gold

Yeast: Ale