Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

Back to Lagunitas for a second effort at a hopped up pale.

First impression here is for a beer that proudly boasts a measured 102 IBU this is really rather tame. The nose is certainly hoppy, but it's more sweet orange and mandarin than violent bitter notes, and the taste follows this guide in delivering a gentler and sweeter experience than expected.

As such I found myself considering this more a standard IPA than a real hop bomb as such, and the sweetness became a little bit sickly after half a glass a bit like Mikkeller's Amarillo IPA. I couldn't see myself drinking more than one of these but for the opposite reason to that initially expected - it's a bit of a letdown in the bite department which is really quite surprising.

Looking at the reviews elsewhere it seems I'm in a bit of a minority here, but to me, people buying one of these sorts of beers ('hop' in the title, promising explosions) would probably prefer a less heavily malted, more unbalanced beer to this halfway effort. 7.0