Name – Breckenridge 471 IPA (Small Batch)
Country – United States
Type – American Double IPA

Next up in my adventure through beer is one I have been very anxious to try and that is Breckenridge 471 IPA.  I’ve been wanting to try this one for quite awhile.  Even before Breckenridge came down to South Florida.  A few people said it’s a great, well balanced double IPA.  Well last week I picked up a couple of bottles and now it’s time to finally try it.

I poured it into my Funky Buddha pint glass and it settled in as a mostly clear orange color.  It had a very thin white head that was gone pretty quick.  But have no fear, it leaves awesome lacing around the glass.

The smell was sort of faint.  It was able to pick up some piney hops along with some malt.  There was a slight boozy like burn in the nostrils as well.  But again these were not very pungent aromas.

At the first sip I was immediately surprised by a nice tangerine flavor to it.  It’s not like a tangerine hop profile but an actual taste of the fruit.  This was followed up with an extremely well balanced taste of citrus hops and malts.  As it warms up you get a little alcohol bit to it but that’s to be expected with the 9.2% ABV.

So people were not kidding when they said it was well balanced.  The hops do not stand out too much and at the same time they keep the malt from going overboard.

I did some research on the Small Batch series that Breckenridge does and there were some interesting sounding ones but they mostly seem to be retired.  Who knows maybe the next time I’m in Colorado I can come across something new.

But overall this was a very good DIPA to me.  I know a lot of people like the super hoppy ones so this may not be for them.  If you like well balanced DIPAs then please go out and try this.  And if you are in South Florida, be sure to check out all the rest of Breckenridge’s stuff that you can get down here now.

Grade – B+