St Arnold Brewing Co Elissa IPA

Well, another day is in the can, and another beer is needed to wash away the fatigue of a day spent in toil.

As my mother prepares one of my favorite meals, chicken fried steak, I have decided to pop the cap of another Texas brewed beer, Elissa IPA from our friends at the Saint Arnold Brewery, located in the parking lot known as Houston, TX.

The cap, while a twist off, wins at a feat of strength, and I must either give the beer up to the ages, or pull out a bottle opener to get at its contents. Once freed from its container, the beer displays its burnt-orange body, and slightly off-white head that dissipates without much fight.

Intermingled with the smell of hot grease from the kitchen, the nose is nice and hoppy, with a subtle floral presence.

The light mouth feel of the beer carries a less pronounced bitterness than the nose lead me to believe, but is still floral on the front end of this medium-bodied ale. On the backend, a nice honey like maltiness develops, as well as an orange essence that adds a delightful finish to the beer.

Overall this is a nice IPA that offers more to the malt-centric than to hop heads, bringing a strong and rich sweetness to a style of beer currently being pushed to the extremes of palatability in bitterness by other brewers. This beer is easy for me to suggest to the hop weary macro beer drinker.

Prost!