Review: Anderson Valley Hop Ottin' IPA

I was planning on reviewing Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin' IPA for a few weeks now, but kept forgetting to do so, so it sat in my fridge saying driiiiink me, I'm a beer bottle with a bear that has antlers! As soon as I was remembering to finally review Hop Ottin', I discovered that the bottle version of Hop Ottin' was being phased out here in Manitoba in favour of the canned version - which has much better shelf life than the bottled version. So I'll go ahead and do a review of the bottle version anyways, and make notes at the end of the differences from the newer canned version.

Hop Ottin' IPA is a beer from as I already said - Anderson Valley Brewing out of Boonville, California, so it's great to see a quality beer from a quality brewery outside of Canada make its way north of the border! Hop Ottin has an ABV of 7% so slightly stronger than most West Coast IPAs out there, but no mention of IBU.

Appearance: For the 355ml bottled version, It pours a hazy amber/grapefruit, if you're a hop head like I am, just looking at it makes you drool! There's a great amount of head that's settled and not going anywhere, a beige/creamy head.

Aroma: Piney, slightly citrusy from grapefruit, slight orange peel aroma, a bit of grass, not overpowering but not knowing how old this bottle it is, it kept its aroma quite well. For the canned version, aroma is more noticeable, more pine punch in the face than the bottled version, but lacks the hint of orange.

Taste: First off, I get two flavours at once, the bitterness of piney hops hits, but also the sweetness of grapefruit hits, both at same time. Sweeter than the Fort Garry Portage & Main easily, sweet maltiness to it. Quite an easy drinking IPA, and the bottle version retains its floral hoppiness in the flavour even though this bottle could have been past its best before date. The canned version is more of a bitter IPA than the bottled version, it has the grapefruitiness but the piney bitterness is front and centre in this case, but slightly mellower and not AS bitter as the bottled version.. either way this is a very solid IPA.

Overall Thoughts: I was surprised how well the bottled version tasted, great grapefruity citrusness still retained in the bottle, while the canned version was of course, retaining the freshness of the hops easier. Either way, drink up and enjoy a great piney and grapefruity West Coast IPA. Costs $2.63 for a 355mL can/bottle depending on what your local MLCC has in stock.