Happy Monday folks and welcome back for another Tap Trail Review. As it continues to warm, albeit slowly, I keep reaching for lighter and brighter offerings. Todays offering comes from Salt Lake City’s Uinta Brewing. Back in Colorado I would find myself consistently reaching for their flagship Hop Nosh IPA, it was and still is a quality West Coast IPA with unflinching citrusy, piney bitterness.
On the table today is an IPA, but one that is quite different from Hop Nosh. Pit Stop is a kettle-soured apricot IPA, so we’ve got a fruit addition from the apricots, and an addition of sour likely from Lactobacillus or Pediococcus or a combo of the two. Clocking in at a pretty standard 6.3% ABV and 45 IBU it hits the baselines for most standard IPA’s. The addition of souring bacteria and fruit is clearly where this one takes a step away from the norm. With a heavy dose of Amarillo and Experimental Hop #431 there should be a lovely floral and tangerine-like component, this should hopefully play well against the apricots and sour notes.
Now that we’ve covered our bases of what to expect, I think it is time to pop the top and pour out a glass. The 750 ml bottle is sealed with cork & cage, traditional in Belgian beers, less traditional though still fairly common in American craft beer, and even less traditional on IPA bottles. The cork unfortunately needed some help on its way out, requiring the help of the old wine key, but fear not, we got beer into the glass.
Beer — Pit Stop Kettle-Soured Apricot IPA | American IPA (ish)
Brewery — Uinta Brewery | SLC, UT
ABV | IBU — 6.3% | 45
Price | Size — $13.99 | 750 ml @ Elizabeth Station
Availability — Limited | Seasonal
Appearance (2 | 3) — The pour is cloudier than expected, with a bit of haze evident in the otherwise bright orange body of beer. There is a quickly fleeting off-white colored head that doesn’t leave much behind in the way of lacing.
Aroma (7 | 10) — Sour, tangy, fruity, tannic, slightly oaky. A few layers of aromas for sure with mostly sour notes of fuzzy apricots and peaches, juicy tangerine, fresh cut flowers. A bit of a dry tannic tartness reminiscent of white oak.
Flavor (15 | 20) — Hop notes of orange, apricot and tangerine, hint of grapefruit and fruity peaches. Leading into notes of dried apricots and fuzzy peaches. A slightly tart note is more refreshing than it is sour, very clean and refreshing overall. A nice balance has been struck between the orange marmalade like hops against the apricot addition and kettle souring. Sounds a bit odd, but really comes together quite well.
Mouthfeel (4 | 5) — Refreshing, tart, slightly tannic. Really easy drinking, with a slight lingering fruity sweetness on the finish.
Overall (8 | 10) — A well done, albeit somewhat odd beer. Balanced notes of tart tangy sour against a fresh stone fruit character and a floral citrusy hop accent.
OVERALL — 36 | 50 — VERY GOOD