Goat Patch IPA

It takes some guts to name one of your flagship beers after your brewery…or maybe the brewery is named after the beer. It’s a mystery. Regardless of the naming controversy that I just started, Goat Patch is the up and coming powerhouse of Colorado Springs breweries. Not only is their taproom on Cascade Avenue hopping (no IPA pun intended), but they plan on opening another taproom on the Northside of town—Voyager near Northgate—and they are taking over Pikes Peak Brewing in Monument. As a Northsider, I welcome their expansion, especially since they don’t plan any drastic changes at Pikes Peak (see my reviews of Pikes Peak’s brews to understand my reverence for the place).

Let’s get to the beer. This is a nice standard west coast IPA (my favorite type of IPA--death to the hazy!). It’s a safe IPA which is very drinkable, but it needs a little something. Maybe some more citrus from Citra hops, or maybe some more piney flavors from Cascade or Chinook additions. I think making a single hop IPA from Cascade hops would be appropriate, considering the location. But I digress.

There is a nice amber color, which means they did good with the grains, in my opinion. There’s a slight malt backbone, but no real signature taste. All in all, I think it’s good for sitting down to a session of beer drinking. With that said, it’s 6.6% ABV, which is light for my system, but not really in the session level of 4.5 to 5.5% (I’m just taking an educated guess at that range). I think this would be a nice beer to drink while taking advantage of the great rotation of food trucks: It’s got a good solid flavor that’d go with any savory food.

All in all, if I was king of this brewery, I’d throw in some more flavoring hops (maybe dry hopping would put this over the edge). Then again, that takes more money—hops aren’t cheap—and I have no business being the king of a brewery, even though it sounds nice.

As always, I love visiting this brewery. I’ll be reviewing more of Goat Patch’s  flagships, but also there’s a nice menu of seasonal and small batch beers as well. I have a post on their pumpkin ale, which is extraordinary…give it a try if it’s on the menu.