Left Hand Warrior IPA

Left Hand Warrior IPA is the brewery’s Fresh Hop IPA that is brewed but once a year. The fresh, Colorado grown, whole flower Cascade hops are sent to the brewery within hours of harvesting. (A bit confusing. Although a bittering hop, I always assumed this beer used fresh Warrior hops!)

This is a great looking beer, it pours with a perfect medium dark golden color with a bit of red highlights, wonderful off white head. The aroma is incredibly mild, not much really going apart from some muted hop earthiness and a hint of malt sweetness. The flavor is a well balanced collection of malts and hops. A nice backbone of caramel sweetness and sweet southern biscuits. The hops are flavorful but not overly potent. Getting hop flavors of some strong pine and orange citrus, subtle grapefruit and some herbal/flowery notes as well. The bitterness is an ever present factor in the taste, not too strong but it last long into the aftertaste.

I don’t remember seeing bottles of this here in Savannah the past few years so I jumped on grabbing one when I saw it recently. At $5.99 it is a bit of a steal, and a nice beer for a Autumn afternoon.