Yellow Snow IPA - Rogue Ales, Newport

Oh look, it's another holiday season IPA... Granted, Rogue doesn't market their Yellow Snow IPA as a Christmas beer, but it's still an IPA that's meant for wintertime consumption. Maybe I'm crazy but I just don't see the appeal of an IPA when it's below freezing outside. But enough about preconceived notions, how does this beer look, smell and taste? Does it feel like a holiday beer? How would it stack up against turkey and all the fixings?

When I poured the Yellow Snow IPA into my glass I noticed the hops right away. You can smell these hops from a mile away. They've got that distinctive Pine-Sol aroma that smells much better than it usually tastes. It's pretty apparent why Rogue calls this beer Yellow Snow, it's a golden yellow color with a frothy white head... yeah... Actually, this beer looks just like an unfiltered Wheat when it's sitting in the glass out of the range of your nose.

The flavor of Rogue's Yellow Snow IPA is, well, nice... Even though it's freezing outside this crisp, hoppy and sweet IPA is actually really nice. It's not my ideal flavor for the season, but I'm finding this really easy to drink and quite a lot of fun. Sure, there's a heaping helping of hops in this beer, but that's to be expected with an IPA. The best part about the Yellow Snow IPA is that this beer isn't all bitter. Those hops are cut through by a sweet citrus flavor, similar to peaches or oranges. This beer still finishes with a dry bitterness that only an IPA fanatic would love, but again, it's done very well. The finish doesn't destroy your tastebuds with a bitter overload, rather, the Yellow Snow's bitter hop finish seems to wipe the sweet citrus from your palate.

I found myself continually going back to my glass looking for more citrus and sweet flavors in the Yellow Snow. It's not the most complex combination for flavors but the Rogue does a good job of mixing up the standard IPA formula to make things a bit more interesting.