Dear Grand Teton Brewing Co....

I like being fair.

In fact, most of my favorite beers have the unfortunate opportunity of having multiple, multiple tastes ensuring that every beer out of their solid establishment is of excellent quality.  Nevertheless, most beers/breweries, if they give me a bad taste in my mouth (literally), they won't get a second shot.

This is one that got a second shot...a swing and a miss.

But I'm getting ahead of myself - I saw a new member trying to throw their hat in the ring on the ever-popular Imperial IPA style that, in this hophead's opinion, is getting too much play.  (Sidebar, breweries that are listening - that's an irrelevant malt flavor with a heavy hop aroma and flavor.  Most of you seem to think that Barleywine and Imperial IPAs are the same.  But I digress.)  That new player was Grand Teton Brewing out of Victor, Idaho with their Lost Continent IPA.

The beer had a way more than necessary malt character and again mixed the mark that so many other Imperial IPAs ahead of them have nailed.  The hop aroma was less than acceptable to boot, and there was this weird grassy aftertaste.  It seems that in order to get alcohol over 9% you have to pump up the malt to keep the yeast pumping up the alcohol, but in my opinion, it's not worth it.

So all in all, not a great beer and certainly not worth the price (I believe it was $3 a 12 oz).  Which is fine - I feel the same way about Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA, which is in its own rite a good beer, and a fantastic brewery (their Palo Santo is a fantastic brew).

But then I got to Sweetgrass APA.

Everything about this beer screams trying too hard.  Hop pictures all over the label?  Check.  Wheat pictures?  A little Michelob, but sure, check.  Original gravity?  That's cool - and irrelevant.  IBUs?  That's novel.  This is what really got me - 8.4 Lovibond?  1)  No one uses Lovibond anymore, it's SRM.  Next - who cares?  I can tell the color of the beer by pouring it.  You're selling to consumers, not brewers.

The beer pours just like Lost Continent.  It smells just like Lost Continent.  It tastes like a watered-down version of Lost Continent - complete with the weird grassy aftertaste.

In the immortal words of GWB, "Fool me once, shame on me - fool me twice - you can't get fooled again."  This brewery has gotten a rare second chance and has failed miserably.    I'd avoid this brewery if any other options.