Green Head IPA

Newburyport Brewing Co.

Newburyport, MA

Named after the greenhead horse fly, Green Head IPA is a West Coast-style IPA.

ABV: 7.2

ABW: 5.73

COLOR: 15

BITTERNESS: 80

ORIGINAL GRAVITY: 1072

AVAILABLE: MA

Rocky off-white quickly dissipating head leaves plenty of lace on the glass. Deep bright golden color has reddish highlights. Powerful hoppy nose is floral and evergreenlike, delightful. Big beer with an abundance of both malt and hops on the palate is well-balanced and delicious with spicy food. We enjoyed it with kimchi, grilled octopus, a potato cake au gratin and sunflower seed crackers followed by salted extra virgin olive oil ice cream with chocolate nibs.
- Charles Finkel

Super hop-hazed with a lingering head. A whammo of fresh, classic American citruslike hop aroma continues with sipping. Bang. This is one hoppy IPA that clobbers your palate with bitterness before the hop flavor can emerge. Assertive bitterness is so aggressive that hop aroma seems a thing of the immediate past. I know the hop flavor is there, but the dynamic bitterness seems to get in front of submerged flavors. This beer needs some rich flavorful blue cheese. Or creamy sheep feta. I don’t think pretzels are going to be much help in creating any balance, but hey, the label says “… an aggressive … IPA.” Check that box off.
- Charlie Papazian

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

Charlie Papazian
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.