Alpine Exponential Hoppiness

Over the weekend, I drank a bottle of Alpine Exponential Hoppiness. This is from a real small brewery outside of San Diego and came by way of my friend Matt Rittenberg. He was nice enough to give me one of the bottles his friend sent to him. Exponential is a triple IPA coming in at 11%.

Incredibly clean citrus orange nose with a hint of caramel. Jo thought it was super strong smelling but I didn't see it. Well, smell it. She does tend to be way more sensitive than me though. Huge orange juice body with a blast of citrus up front, more orange hanging around with just a bit of bitterness coming through at times. The aftertaste is mostly bitterness, not sweet even with the fact that the body isn't that dry. No alcohol that I could find for the most part though it felt a bit like alcoholic orange juice. Very impressive mix of sweet and dryness that never became cloying. Just delicious and excellent use of hops. I imagine it's amazing when it's even fresher. Thanks Matt!

Alpine Pure Hoppiness

Alpine is a small brewery in Alpine, California (near San Diego) that gets a lot of news for their IPAs.  I was lucky enough to be given a bottle of their Pure Hoppiness, an IPA, as an extra in my latest trade.

The aroma was piney along with some slight lemony bitterness.  Initially slightly bitter up front then followed by some hoppy pine notes.  Very dry finish and surprisingly the bitterness doesn't linger at all considering how much of it I found in the aroma and the flavor.  Quite an enjoyable IPA and I found it to be very balanced and pretty tasty.