Good morning, beer readers. The damndest thing happened over the weekend. I had a slight cold—just stuffed up… no cough, no real headaches—but my sense of taste and smell vanished. VANISHED I TELL YOU!!! Now, normally I’m a sensible sort of person. I would never fly off the handle over not even being able to taste a spoonful of paprika and oregano. But when I ate just that (yes, really, exactly that) as a test, I couldn’t taste a thing… and we had just bought a mixed case of Widmer Brothers beers. See that’s why I was all hot n bothered. 4 types of beer… 6 each… can’t even taste oreganprika.

Anyway, the next day my taste was back so Mrs. Beer and I cracked open some braus and went a-tastin’. Today, we’ll discuss the Broken Halo IPA… (it’s the one on the left. That’s why there’s the big red arrow. We’ll get to the one on the right, and a couple other Widmer’s, soon enough, beervolk.)

I’ll be honest… Widmer’s flagship beer? Their Heffeweizen? For some reason I remembered not much liking it and I was biased… holding a grudge… not sure why. I had one last night and it was pretty damn good. But that’s for another day. Just clearing the airwaves. Their IPA? Good IPA. Lovely light amber, honeyish color, as you can see above. The head was small bubbles that diminished rather after a few minutes and sips. The aroma? A bouquet of hoppiness, I sez! They use 3 types of hops in their brew and it is indeed a hop fiesta.

This beer isn’t anything crazy, like, say, Stone’s Ruination IPA, which I had over the weekend and which rendered me a blubbering, sweaty pile of Captain lying in a corner. Rather it’s a very solid example of an IPA with some chops of its own. There’s a more pronounced citrus flavor to this beer than many India Pale Ales boast. A nice maltiness balances out the hops in the taste, though hops remain the dominant flavor in the sip and the finish. A good beer, and a good portent of what’s to come from my fridge from this brewery.