Cerberus Brewing Tiny Umbrella IPA

Cerberus has several IPAs to choose from, but I always come back to Tiny Umbrella Party. It’s a solid west coast style IPA with a hop profile that brings out the citrus notes. It’s not as tropical as the menu description, but I’m not big on the tropics anyway. I will say that the batch of TUP that I tried this past summer seemed more tropical (juicy, in IPA terms), but maybe it was just the hot weather that had me in a beach mood. Now that it’s the middle of February, the fruitiness seems to have gone south. Still, there’s a good grapefruit bitterness and a little bit of body. As I make my way through the pint, bitterness is up front. If you’re the type that likes your IPAs with a high IBU number (the controversial International Bitterness Unit measurement), then you’d like this one.

I think it’s a good 'session' beer, even though it’s at 7% ABV and seven bucks a pint. It’s one of those beers that goes down smooth when hanging out with friends or writing blog posts. It probably goes well with food, which is not lacking at Cerberus (there’s a great menu, which I’ll write about in my brewery section). As IPAs go in this city, I’d say TUP is in the top five or six. Turn the bitterness down just a notch and turn up the malt backbone another notch, it’d be in the top two. (For an example of what I consider a near perfect west coast IPA, try a Crankyanker IPA from Buena Vista’s Eddyline Brewing.) Cerberus offers an imperial IPA that promises that type of body, but I’ll save that one for another review—it comes in at a hefty 9.5% ABV. Bottom line: If you like west coast IPAs, then the TUP IPA will hit the spot.