Resurgence CitMo IPA

The bouquet, evident even before holding CitMo to the nose, is like an exotic eau de cologne perfuming the room. First taste is overpowering—way too many hops, but then … the lingering bitter aftertaste beckons another taste, then another. This beer grows on you, the more that you drink it. Hazy gold in color, with a turbid yeast that adds to the appeal. Believe it or not, we enjoyed it with brunch of pickled herring in sour cream, wood-fired poppy seed bagels, spicy eggs rancheros and a grapefruit soaked in the beer, laden with brown sugar and put in the oven just enough to crystallize the sugar. Sweet, no bitter!

Charles Finkel is founder of Merchant du Vin and the Pike Brewing Co. Finkel is a pioneer in the marketing of beers in America.

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A very pale IPA. Beautiful hoppy, creamy dense head. Cloudy as a yeast culture on a stormy day. Explosive aromatics expressing citruslike grapefruit and pleasant sulfur-onion herbal character. Assertive bitterness helps portray grapefruit flavors. Nouveau American hop flavors abound. Despite the first impression of medium body, CitMo has a dry finish; perhaps that is the cloudiness tricking me to imagine yeast creaminess. If you like assertive hop bitterness and grapefruit character, you’ll go bananas over this well-brewed IPA.

Charlie Papazian is the author of the New Complete Joy of Homebrewing, founder of the Great American Beer Festival and national beer examiner at examiner.com. Papazian is a leading voice in beer and brewing.

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