West Coast Socks & Sandals

Humble Sea Brewing Company — Santa Cruz, CA

1 Dec 2020 · Stephen

West Coast IPA Humble Sea Brewing Company

6.6% ABV

Clear golden Color

Contributing Factors

Presentation ✓

Character ✓

Experience ✓

Return –

3 / 4 I'd recommend trying it

Tasting Notes

Appearance Clear gold, bright with fine carbonation and a white head. A drinker notes it pours clear gold with white head — classic West Coast IPA presentation, clean and confident. No haze, no ambiguity.

Aroma The DDH process delivers the hop aromatics front and center — Citra's citrus and tropical fruit leading, Centennial's grapefruit and floral quality layering underneath, with Simcoe's dankness and pine sitting in the background giving the whole nose a resinous depth. A drinker describes crisp, fruity, and floral hops with a little grass — that grassiness is the Centennial and Simcoe doing their thing on double dry hop. Inviting and expressive without being aggressive.

Palate Light bitterness and hops up front, light sweetness, not malty — a drinker's description that nails it. The DDH hop character carries through the middle with the Citra citrus and Centennial floral quality leading, Simcoe building dankness behind it, and the Chinook providing a firm but integrated bitterness that keeps the whole thing grounded as a proper West Coast IPA rather than drifting into fruit-juice hazy territory.

Finish Long, floral, and hoppy — another drinker's exact descriptor. The Citra citrus fades first, the Simcoe resin and Centennial floral note lingering on the back palate with a clean, dry bitterness. Crisp and clean finish, as noted at the taproom. Medium length, resolving completely and making the next sip as inevitable as wearing sandals to the beach.

The Verdict

Humble Sea built the perfect socks-and-sandals beer — comfortable, confident, completely at home in Santa Cruz, and better than you might assume from its casual demeanor.

— Stephen · Contributing Factor Brewing · 1 Dec 2020