This microbrewery is not as micro as it once was, a sizeable floorplan on Railroad Street in Rochester, the one in New York, not in Minnesota where the Mayo Clinic is. Thus, the name of their IPA. Available only in NY state as far as i know, since the can only has the NY5ยข deposit value on it. And finally, the Rohrbach beers come in 4-pack pint cans, or closer in to the brewery, i understand that they are also sold in 64-oz growlers.
That’s about all the info, since there’s no carton and very little data on the cans themselves. Don’t even know how strong this IPA is, but i can tell you from experience that this is no “session” ale. A fourpack of this obliterated me a few months ago when i wasn’t paying attention. Or i wasn’t paying respect, or what ever… i paid for it the next morning.
The basics are these: medium pale color, light effervescence, good piney nose when poured. Most of all, the major data point here, is that it tastes great. This has a solid beer body underneath the hops, and the hops are what they should be: a kumquat growing on a fir tree branch.
The proper tastes are all there, but the important thing is the balance of the body and the hops, and this crafty brewery has been around since 1991, practically ready for a flood of AARP mailings in beer years. Over that amount of time, you can’t help but become an expert at what you’re doing, and the Rohrbachers have done so.
So, some serious skills went into this IPA, and it comes out the other side of alchemy as liquid exhuberance. Couldn’t tell you what hop species they use, but the result is fine. Fine as in fine gold, not fine as in “ok fine.” I am definitely a fan of this IPA, and i used to buy it frequently before i started concentrating on strange and unusual hoppy beers to broaden my IPA horizons.
What to rate it? Damn, i don’t know. This is one of the first modern IPA’s i tried. Had a smattering of IPAs over the years, before they became a whole industrial segment of their own, and for several years i’d walk past an expanding indy beer section at stores and notice that everyone and their decrepit grandma was making an IPA now, and i rolled my eyes and walked past, and grabbed what i knew.
But things change, one of them is the general economy. As recovery washed away remorse and jobs started falling off the trees again, there came a week where there was enough money to try a nicer beer for a change. That was this beer, the one i’m reviewing right now. So in a sense, RR St. IPA is a sort of baseline by which i measure the modern crop of crafty IPA’s. But how do i rate it objectively, now that it’s a standard?
Well, compared to the elites and deletes i’ve tasted since, Rohrbach’s IPA holds up pretty good. The balance is skillful, the hops are assertive, and the body is quality. The price is good at $9 for 4×16, and once my journey across the IPA landscape runs its course, i’ll probably settle back into buying this one when i want an IPA. Just generally hiqual. So rating it? Oofda, say 8.5.