Portsmouth Clusters Last Stand

From Portsmouth –  Cluster’s Last Stand is an expression of things passed. Three brewers, Mitch Steele, Brewmaster of Stone Brewing Company, Dave Yarrington Smuttynose’s DoBrO and host brewer/New England brewing legend Tod Mott (Portsmouth Brewery) have taken a classic American IPA recipe and recreated it with a few modern twists.Ballantine Brewery’s original IPA recipe as a base used Bullion hops exclusively. Given the punny name of the beer, our veteran trio of brewers substituted Cluster as the bittering hop and keeping Bullion as the flavor contribution. The first update was to pack a few more finishing hops in, with sizable additions of Tomahawk going in at 5 minutes and again in the hopsack during wort cooling.

Portsmouth Brewery – Portsmouth Clusters Last Stand – 22 oz. bottle poured into a goblet. 6.5% abv.

Appearance:  Pours a bright amber orange with a creamy gathering of white swirls.

Aroma: Grapefruit, dusty malt peach apricot.

Taste: Grapefruit, pine earthy yeast. Lingering bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, sticky.

Overall:  Very tasty. Reminded me of a Bear Republic DIPA, very hoppy yet earthy.