REVIEW: MOYLAN’S INDIA PALE ALE

How boring is it to only taste beer from your own backyard, and how frustrating for our non-California readers to read about impossible-to-find brands? Ah, but I’ve been enjoying all sorts of fine grains and formulas from the greater San Francisco Bay Area the past couple of weeks, and intend to venture further afield in subsequent reviews. I think I have a new favorite IPA, besting even the outstanding RACER 5 that blew me away last week – the IPA from MOYLAN’S, a brewery based in Novoto, California. This thing is just front-loaded with hops and is bitter to the bone – exactly what you want from this style. It’s colored an amber-orange, and leaves a really fine carbonated aftertaste that’s creamy but still real biting. I looked to see what my fellow travelers in the beer dork world had to say about it, and to my surprise it came in scoring a little lower than I’d expected over at Beer Advocate. Hey, there’s no accounting for taste, but I’ll grant that this was my second large beer of the night, after an intense and brewtal OMMEGANG that I’ll probably write something about later. So I’m gonna make a plan to drink a lot more of this IPA and report back to ya to see if this is really the enthusiastic 9.5/10 I gave it as it was sliding down my throat. Rumor has it that their Double IPA is something special, so I’ll get on the stick and hunt that down as well.