Deep Cove Brewers University Brew Off IPA: This IPA was the winning beer in a brew off between two local University home brewing clubs SFBrew (SFU) and BrUbc (UBC) competing in the Hops Connect Cup University Home Brewing Competition (as reported on Canadian Beer News). It was originally dubbed Hop-A-Rella, released in April of this year ant brewed at a strength of 7% abv and 78 IBUs. I am in the midst of a cellar clean out trying to work through some earlier purchases before they go stale, this would have been better to have enjoyed fresh however it is still on the shelves in some stores.
Aroma and Appearance: It pours a familiar cloudy copper orange colour with two fingers of foam and some tiny bubbles can be seen in my Spiegelau IPA glass. The aroma is tangerine citrus, doughy malts and sweet caramel.
Flavour: Initially I got sweet honey and bread malt which felt a bit sticky, followed by tangerine citrus and caramel which finishes with pine and lemon zest bitterness.
Overall Impression: Pretty decent stuff, for me I don’t particularly love lemon zest in IPA’s but otherwise it was nice.
Rating: A very good beer at 7/10, still on the shelves and fresh enough to enjoy so don’t hesitate to grab one if you see it.
Food Pairing: BBQ peppery chicken to work with the lemon zest, or prawns would work well with this IPA.
I hope they do another brew off this year and repeat the process, it is a cool idea that really gains a lot of respect in my books.
West Coast Beer Geek 
Certainly an apropos review for this week. Very cool to hear of the inter-university competition. A great idea. Would be great to see it here in Ottawa as well.
Yeah the idea is pretty cool, some of the schools are now offering brewing classes, chemistry and so on to train future brewers which is really exciting. This contest is run by a hop grower/seller which is a great way for them to get their name out there. I love these kinds of things, another neat one was Russell Brewing Nautical Disaster Barleywine, winner of the 2013 Golden Stag Home Brewers award. I have a case in the cellar 🙂
Sorry, Nautical Barleywine was the 2012 winner. 2013 winner I haven’t seen yet but is supposed to be a 2014 release of a Villicht s Hochziitsbier Weizen?
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