Green Flash Brewing Company hails from the very famous San Diego, California. San Diego is known in the craft beer world as one the many meccas of craft beer. Some of the greatest and oldest breweries have come out of this amazingly sunny city. Green Flash Brewing was founded in 2002, making it a fairly younger brewery compared to Ballast Point which was founded in 1996. San Diego is #2 on the list of Best Beer Cities according to Thrillist and I have to say there is a lot going on in San Diego when it comes to craft beer. Green Flash was originally opened in Carlsbad, California just north of San Diego and moved its operation to San Diego County in 2011, stamping it the fourth largest brewery in San Diego County. Green Flash also recently acquired Alpine Beer Company in 2014, another great brewery that produces some fantastic beer. I personally am not a huge fan of Green Flash, but their West Coast IPA is worth noting!
Imperial IPA
ABV: 8.1%
IBU: 95
I wouldn’t call this one a crazy hop explosion. Although do not be mistaken, my definition of a hop explosion is one that hits you with crazy tropical hops. The colloquial term for a hop explosion has a different definition all together. In IPAs I prefer the hop explosion to have the attributes of tropical notes! Those are my favourites. This one uses predominantly Simcoe and Columbus hops with a little Cascade and then adds Amarillo, Centennial for the dry hop, so I didn’t expect the crazy tropical hop explosion I was looking for. But this beer amazed me with how easy to drink it was compared to its high ABV. It has a standard hop explosion, followed by a minor sharp bitterness, that quickly smooths away. This is easily my favourite IPA from Green Flash and although it’s amazing I would prefer other breweries over this one, but that’s more a personal preference rather than a lack of quality from Green Flash. Green Flash produces some amazingly well crafted high quality beer and is well admired by the craft beer world.
4/5
Citizen
HopCitizen 