It’s been a while since I did one of my ‘loose reviews’ of a beer on this blog. Those of you that have kept up to date with this blog in recent weeks will have been aware of the poorly distributed Monteith’s IPA From their Brewers’ Series.

I finally ended up with some courtesy of some Woolworths/BWS PR. So, I figure it’s probably appropriate to let you know my opinions of it…

Monteith’s PIPA

The chase wasn’t really worth it. After drinking two of these 500ml bottles, I’ve decided that the brew should be more appropriately deemed a PIPA; Pretend India Pale Ale.

As Glen mentioned last week, the IBU rating is very low for an IPA. At 35 IBUs, this beer is not bitter enough to call itself an IPA. It is my belief that typical IPA’s contain an IBU rating higher than 40.

Then there’s the hops. Oh, wait. There is no real sign of any hoppiness. Surely an IPA should present itself with at least an element of hops on my tongue?

I’m giving this a 2.5 star rating. You might think that my negativity should warrant a lower rating but in all honesty it isn’t an awful beer. It’s rather bland but not awful. I didn’t feel the need to do one of those comedy spit-sprays as soon as it entered my mouth. It’s just been badly labelled and ranked incorrectly…and, of course, poorly distributed.