Leatherlips IPA
By
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
With the warm Mexican sun behind me and another winter storm ahead of me, I’ve decided to indulge — by welcoming myself home on this chilly IPA Monday with a brew from my adopted hometown of Haverhill, MA.
When I moved from Boston to Cambridge, the final selling point for my apartment was its proximity (less than 2 blocks) from Bukowski’s Tavern and its great beer and eclectic food menus. Similarly, my move a year later from Cambridge up north to Haverhill was eased by the discovery of The Tap and Leather Lips IPA from the Tap’s “Haverhill Brewery”.
The bottle warns the drinker to hold onto his or her hat . . .
. . . or even better — your lips! This beer is for “hop heads” only. Ripe with floral and citrus notes, our India Pale Ale is so packed with Centennial and Chinook hops it should be green! Hop to the challenge!
Undoubtedly, the most striking feature is the label and the Leatherlips IPA girl, by artist Jessica Dougherty. I’ve seen the uninitiated, mainly men, grab a bottle from the package store shelves simply because of that leather-clad redhead. And the women who buy it seem to strut with well-deserved confidence.
Tonight, I poured a bottle of Leatherlips into a Duvel tulip glass to get a good look at it. This unfiltered beer is a pale, cloudy orange. Held up to the light, my Duvel glass took on the appearance of a hoppy snow globe. Very pretty, and thirst inducing.
The beer manages to be both unrelentingly hoppy and easy to drink at the same time. There’s a lemon taste that seems to give brief relief from the hops without compromising on the bitterness.
At the risk of being chauvinistic — actually, I’d say I’m about to leap right over that line — the Leatherlips girl is far from the only aspect of this beer that accurately meets the description of well-endowed. When it comes to great-big, hoppy taste, its cup — so to speak — runneth over. But you’ve hardly had time to notice before getting a bitter smack right in the mouth. And even if you have what it takes to be invited to hang out for a drink, the time goes by far too quickly. Before you know it, the beer is gone and you’re left wondering why you feel so skippy, with nothing but your bottle in hand.
Related posts:
