North Peak Brewing Co.
Traverse City, MI
Available: MI, OH
The beer recipes at North Peak are developed between brewmasters Mike Hall at North Peak and Ron Jeffries at Jolly Pumpkin and are brewed at the North Peak facility located on Old Mission Peninsula, North of Traverse Michigan.
ABV: 6.7
ABW: 5.31
Color: 14
Bitterness: 66.7
Original gravity: 1065
I often struggle with what I want to order on the menu and vacillate between completely different ends of the spectrum. ("Green salad or duck?") So, I often get both. ("Side salad and duck!") So North Peak's Vicious—a wheat IPA—certainly appeals to that duality in me. And it doesn't disappoint. Pouring a rich apricot in color, Vicious' double roots become apparent at first whiff with slight hints of banana and tangerine. The wheat makes first introductions but is quickly followed by a huge burst of fruity hops, turning a potential train wreck quite an enjoyable ride.
Don’t be deterred by the name: this is not an aggressive beer. It’s tasty and chunky but it’s also very quaffable for the strength. Vicious is described as an American wheat IPA, but it owes more to the IPA style than the wheat. True, the beer does pour cloudy, but right from the aroma it is juicy, zesty hop resins, loaded with orange peel, grapefruit and melon character, that make all the running. What the wheat does provide is a good foundation for the hops, without introducing intrusive malt flavors. It also shows its hand in the bready, chewy finish.
Lisa Morrison, aka The Beer Goddess, writes about beer whenever she can and also gets to talk about it on a weekly radio show in her hometown of Portland, OR.
Author of the Good Bottled Beer Guide and The Book of Beer Knowledge, Jeff Evans is an eight-time editor of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide and one of Britain's best-known beer writers.
