Calgary Alberta: Wild Rose Brewery: Industrial Park Ale

[bradsul]

Any Albertans familiar with this beer? My buddy just got back from a trip out to Calgary and brought back a 6er of this for me. I have to say I really dig the caramel flavour of this beer! It's a little lacking in hop flavour for my taste (especially for an IPA) but the bitterness I think is well balanced with the malt/caramel flavours.

However along with the lack of hop flavour it also has next to no hop aroma (indeed the only aroma I can really detect is caramel). This may come from being a bottled version (there's no date on the bottles or box so I'm not sure how fresh the beer is).

Also, maybe I'm imagining it (I've done a fair bit of sampling tonight) but I'm detecting some hot alcohol flavour and bite as well. It's only tipping in at 5.5% ABV so I wasn't expecting it and I only noticed it as it warmed up.

Overall this is a fine beer but I wouldn't call it an IPA.

 

[bradsul]

After reading some reviews on this beer I definitely think the bottles I received aren't the freshest. It's supposed to have a citrusy nose and hop flavour to it. Oh well, free beer is free beer and I'm still enjoying it.

 

[FlyGuy]

Brad -- just spotted your thread. Wild Rose Brewery sponsors our homebrew club, and the head brewer there is our prez. I have had long discussions with him about this beer -- it was originally brewed as a pale ale, and the IPA moniker originally came from the name (Industrial Park Ale -- the old brewery was in an industrial area of town). Now they are slowly upping the recipe to make it more IPA-like. In the brewery, the current batch is higher gravity and now at about 6%, with more hops.

I am guessing that if you never detected any hops in the aroma, you must have had an old or badly handled sixer. That's too bad, because it is a great beer fresh. It is even BETTER cask-conditioned from the brewery. If you ever make that fly fishing trip pilgrimage to Calgary, I'll gladly take you there for a few pints and introduce you to the brewer.

 

[bradsul]

Very cool! Be sure to tell him it's a fine brew even when forces beyond his control have tried their best to ruin it! I actually just had my last bottle of this last night and I still really like the caramel flavours. Unlike that certain caramel beer on here, it still has plenty of bitterness to counteract the sweetness which keeps it very drinkable.