Animal IPA

Fort Point Beer Company — Light amber

27 Jan 2018 · Stephen

IPA Fort Point Beer Company

7.5% ABV

54 IBU

San Francisco, CA Color

Contributing Factors

Presentation –

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return –

2 / 4 A solid effort

Tasting Notes

Appearance Golden to light amber, clear with a persistent white head. Fort Point's classic clean presentation — nothing hazy, nothing obscuring the warm glow of the Golden Promise malt underneath the hop oils. Confident and bright in the glass.

Aroma Wildly aromatic is accurate. Vic Secret leads with bold pineapple — that distinctive Australian variety's intensity is immediately identifiable, tropical and assertive. Citra layers in citrus and additional tropical fruit, Simcoe adds its resinous pine and dankness in the middle register, and Meridian contributes a softer, fruitier note underneath. The result is a complex, layered tropical-dank hop aroma that covers more ground than most four-hop bills manage.

Palate Medium-full body, the Golden Promise malt doing crucial structural work through the middle. The pineapple and tropical fruit from the Vic Secret and Citra carry through prominently, with Simcoe's pine and dank earthiness building on the back half. At 54 IBU the bitterness is firm and assertive but integrated into the malt backdrop rather than standing alone — fruity citrus, not too bitter but hoppy is one drinker's precise reading, while another finds it super assertively hopped, which reflects the 7.5% ABV assertiveness the style delivers at this gravity. Both are correct from their respective positions on the hop-tolerance spectrum.

Finish Long, piney, and dank. The Simcoe resin and Vic Secret dankness linger well after the sip with a clean, sustained bitterness from the 54 IBU that resolves slowly. The Meridian softness fades first, the harder hop character staying with the back palate in a finish that Fort Point's own word — roars — captures better than anything more measured.

The Verdict

our hops, Golden Promise malt, 7.5% ABV, and a name that knows what it is. Fort Point's Animal roars exactly as advertised — wildly aromatic, assertively bitter, and built with enough malt craft to make the tropical dank punch land clean.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 27 Jan 2018