A while back northern California’s Lost Coast Brewery shipped out several beers for me to check out: Revenant IPA, Fogcutter Double IPA, and Imperial Stout. I’ll have a review on the stout later, but here are my tasting notes and thoughts on the two IPAs.

Both are in the brewery’s Graveyard Series, with appropriately-themed skeletal spirit labels, though I must confess I don’t know why there is a “Graveyard” series or the history behind it. (Further research required, clearly.) Lost Coast, itself founded in 1989, is located in Eureka, California and is probably best known for its Great White Beer and Downtown Brown, though it also brews a solid lineup of others such as Eight Ball Stout and Tangerine Wheat. I’ve enjoyed the beers for years, and someday plan to visit the brewery (my wife was able to last year, and brought back a bottle of Imperial Stout, which is that later review).

Revenant IPA

The brewery says:

Revenant IPA has full-bodied flavor from rich Pale malts generating a light amber hue. A blend of Simco and Citra hops to generate a unique and lively citrus aroma and flavor. This is a very refreshing IPA suitable for hopheads and everyone else, as well.

I received the bottles on March 11; Revenant was bottled on February 20, and I drank it on April 1. So, about five weeks old by the time I got to it when I cracked the bottle open, which isn’t too bad for an out of state IPA. It’s 6.9% alcohol by volume; my notes:

Appearance: Orange honey with tints of gold; relatively clear with a touch of (chill?) haze. A finely bubbled off-white head. (You can see my picture above, it looks really attractive.)

Smell: Citrus peel, orange marmalade, candied fruit, toasty caramel malt, floral hops. Bright and juicy, and a touch grassy.

Taste: Herbal hop bitterness with a spicy greens character (arugula, dandelion greens). Solid malt backbone, with a clean bit of toasted bread complexity, no residual sweetness so it finishes nicely dry. Mid-palate there is some clean hop bitterness, and it stays fairly herbal in (hop) flavor overall.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a well-attenuated finish and lightly bitter residual aftertaste.

Overall: Nicely done, a good old school west coast bitterness that is not over the top, combined with the late-addition hop flavors I’m looking for in today’s IPAs.

Fogcutter Double IPA

The brewery says:

Buckle up, buckaroo – you’re about to go on a wild, hoppy ride. The Fogcutter is our first true double IPA, and it’s quite the work of art. Yeah, it’s bitter, but it’s supposed to be. And the variety of malt flavors and aroma help balance it all out, as any good DIPA deserves. The bright, citrusy nose is born from the extra dry-hop from Cascade, Centennial, Crystal, Chinook, and Citra hops.

Also bottled on February 20, opened on April 7, Fogcutter is 8.7% abv. My notes:

Appearance: Attractive copper color with a touch of haze (minimal) and a low off-white head.

Smell: Grapefruit peel and juice, prominent, yielding a bright and juice nose. Some tropical fruit salad notes and fresh herbs sprinkled liberally throughout. This gives it an appetizing aroma (mouth watering).

Taste: Spicy-bitter hops with nice tobacco and dank notes. Herbal with notes of dandelions greens, or nettles, at the back of the palate. The hops are big, but balanced, against a soft malt note that is lightly sweet and biscuity. Nothing over the top here, it’s pleasant with great hop flavor delving into those herbal spicy notes.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a dry character that comes from the hops at the back, leaving a pleasantly spicy green aftertaste.

Overall: A tasty and impressive DIPA, restrained but not afraid of the hops, well-brewed and one I would go back for.