Ninkasi Brewing Company - Maiden The Shade

Welcome back everyone! Been a couple weeks since I blogged about beer so I figured tonight I'd change that. I'm drinking a beer tonight that I only bought because the font on the label is that of Iron Maiden, one of my favorite bands. Nothing wrong with that, right? I didn't think so.

So what am I drinking? Well, if you skipped the blog title, I'm drinking a special release from Ninkasi. I'm drinking their Maiden The Shade. This is a 6.8% abv "Specialty Ale" which from what I can gather, is really just an American IPA. I'm cool with that. Who doesn't love a good IPA? So without further distractions, let's get this one poured and I'll try to make sense and give you my thoughts on Maiden The Shade.

Maiden pours out a really striking golden color. Very radiant gold. This one is pretty hazy, can't really see through the glass. There's about a half finger of a bright white head with a lot of tiny white bubbles. The head doesn't stick around very long but leaves behind a fairly decent lacing. There's a bit of sediment in the glass which is no doubt adding to the haze factor we've got going on. Overall, this is a really nice looking beer. Let's get the nose.

First thing I get is some ripe peach, ripe mango like fruits. There's a sweetness here that I wouldn't normally expect from an IPA. Reminds me a lot of honey actually. It definitely cuts the bitter hope aroma you'd usually pick up from an American IPA. There's a little bit of a floral bitterness coming through but this beer is dominated by those peaches, the mango and definitely what I can only describe as honey. Very sweet smelling, not very bitter on the nose. This has me intrigued. Let's see how the Maiden tastes.

Right away, you get the IPA bitterness that's pretty much a guarantee in an American IPA. That carries across the palate from start to finish paving the way for that sweetness I got on the nose. Honey sweetness and some very trace amounts of peach. Sides of the palate you get some subtle sweetness, more of the peach. I get zero citrus on this beer. They used 7 different hops in this but nothing stands out in the way of hops. Just a big blast of bitterness. Maybe Cascade, sorta reminiscent of Sierra Nevada. Maiden finishes really dry leaving a lot of that hop bitterness lingering in it's wake. Sort of destroying anything else that I'd hope was going on.

So overall, Maiden The Shade isn't bad but I don't think it's anything incredible. I would have liked to get something else besides just hop bitterness here. While the beer smells pretty nice and looks amazing, the flavors on this just do nothing for me because really, they're not there for the most part. I think this could be good, maybe more fresh than what I"m drinking. Not sure on the age of this one. It's worth a shot to check out. I know a lot of hop heads would genuinely enjoy this. I'm just left wanting more.

Rating: C+