Alpine Duet IPA
I’ll preface this brief by stating that this is most definitely not the first time or even one of the first several times I’ve had this beer. It’s only been available locally recently, but I buy it regularly now.
Scent
At first crack, this IPA is what you’d expect from an IPA, with a bit of a citrusy edge. Pretty straight forward — not much else to say here.
Taste
While really smooth and light, it is a fairly sharp, floraly hoppy, yet not very sweet IPA (perhaps the lack of sweetness causes it to feel light, since, at 7%, it certainly isn’t the ABV). It is considered a West Coast IPA, but I feel like it’s more balanced tasting in some sort of way than the usual west coast style. Again, perhaps the lack of extreme bitterness or syrupy feel is what does it.
Overall
This is probably one of my all time favorite straight IPAs. I rank it right up there with Cigar City’s Jai Alai and Russian River’s Blind Pig. If you like either of those two, you will most likely enjoy this one, though I would say Duet is a little lighter on flavor, but making up for it in drinkability. Just a really fantastic, fairly high ABV, yet sessionable IPA. The overall brewing quality really shines with this one.