Review: Deschutes Brewery Hop Henge Experimental IPA (2015)

Review: Deschutes Brewery Hop Henge Experimental IPA (2015)

Hop Henge 22ozDeschutes’ Hop Henge continues its run of being “just OK,” with this year’s special edition — well, late 2015’s special edition — of its “experimental IPA” incorporating Mandarin Bavaria and Centennial hops (among others). Bitterness is ratcheted quite a bit down from last year to just 66 IBUs, the overall impact of all this being, well, not all that much.

There’s a citrus note here that west coast IPA fans will find familiar, but a burlier character forest floor character quickly takes hold. Notes of mushroom and licorice persevere, then a familiar piney character becomes evident. Here, though, it has more of a solvent note than I’d like. The finish is clean but, unfortunately, just a bit watery.

As always, this is a fun beer to try, but it just doesn’t add much to the IPAverse.

8.9% abv.

B / $6 per 22 oz. bottle / deschutesbrewery.com

Deschutes Brewery Hop Henge Experimental IPA (2015)

$6
8

Rating

8.0/10

Christopher Null is the founder and editor in chief of Drinkhacker. A veteran writer and journalist, he also operates Null Media, a bespoke content creation company.

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