Name: Loose Cannon

Brewery: Clipper City

Overall Rating: B

Style: IPA

Serving Style: 12oz Bottle

ABV: 7.25

IBU: Unknown, but high

Price: $6.99 for a six pack

Malts: Crisp English Pale, Carapils, and Munich

Hops: Magnum, Centennial, Chinook, Amarillo and Palisade

Appearance: Awesome orange color reminiscent of an Oktoberfest brew.  Nice bright head.  Crystal clear.

Aroma: Powerful, raw hops.  Much strong smell than most IPAs.  Even stronger than most Imperial Pale Ales.  This smells like your smelling raw hops in a glass.

Flavor: It’s a mouthful of hops which you would think is a great thing, and it’s not bad but the balance and body are off on this beer for me so it’s literally like drinking pure hop water.  I would have thought this was a dream come true, but this beer proves to me that I don’t see just pure hops.  I want a balance, bold hoppy experience.

Body: Medium

Enjoyability: This is an East Coast IPA.  Being raised on the West Coast IPAs, it’s hard for me to give this beer an raving “A++++”.  That said,  I enjoyed this beer because it really showed me, Mr. HopHead, that a beer that’s all about hops can miss the mark if the balance isn’t right.  I did enjoy this beer and will not complain about drinking the remaining 5. It’s a hop adventure that just needs a bit more body to balance it out.

From the Brewery: Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale – called Hop 3 (hop cubed) ale to reflect the enormous amount of hops in this beer: over 3 pounds per barrel! Also the beer is hopped 3 ways – in the kettle, in the hop back, and dry hopped. Winner of the Overall Best of Show Award in the Maryland State Governor’s Cup 2005 Competition.

Another take: Ba | RateBeer | Brewery

Tags: beer review, Clipper City, Heavy Seas, Loose Cannon

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Beer Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.