I reviewed Surly's famous Furious IPA a few hours ago, now it's time for my review of their Todd the Axe Man!
What is Todd the Axe Man? From the description: Our version of the West Coast Style IPA first brewed in collaboration with Amager Brewery in Denmark. Brewed with one malt, Golden Promise from the UK, with Citra and Mosaic hops. If you think Todd is a good brewer, you should hear him play his axe (guitar)! Named by Amager’s marketing director Henrik Papsø.
Appearance: Todd has your typical bright West Coast style IPA right off the bat with a nice cloudy orange body and a light to moderate amount of beige head on top - the head is absolutely glistening as I'm looking at it! There's a good deal of sediment in this beer but it's nothing I haven't experienced before.
Aroma: The first thing that comes to my mind is tropical fruitiness - notes of pineapple, grapefruit and a hint of cantaloupe. There's a good deal of hoppy bitterness in here such as a sharp pine aroma, a faint amount of sweet wet barley graininess but not really noticing a strong malt profile compared to Furious.
Taste: Until recently I've never heard of a beer being described as juicy, but after visiting RateBeer and BeerAdvocate more, I'm seeing that term used on a lot of IPAs like this... in fact, this is pretty damned juicy - It's a tropical fruit sweetness up front with pineapple, grapefruit and other various tropical notes. The hops are very prevalent in here giving off a bitter pine flavour to it but the sweet tropical fruits almost want to be the dominant flavour in this beer. A bit of a honey-like sweetness is popping up on my palate the more I'm drinking this.. but for the most part.
Overall Thoughts: The IPA reminds me of a combination of West Coast IPA meets Sip of Sunshine. I do notice a bit of a hop burn in my esophagus but nothing that's really irritating me so far. Very enjoyable IPA - I can never get enough of IPAs with a great tropical zestiness with a great bitter hop presence. I will be buying this again next time I'm in North Dakota. 7.2% ABV.
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