Lineage Brewing Spaceship #6 IPA (6/10)

I apologize if this is redundant to long-time readers, but you can never be sure which article on your blog a reader will find first.  For that reason, I want to warn readers up front that I am decidedly not a fan of the India Pale Ale (IPA), American Pale Ale (APA), and Pale Ale styles in general.  I find such hop-forward beers unpleasant to drink, and their flavors not overly complex.

For that reason, you'll probably never see me rate a Pale Ale or IPA an 8 or higher.  This doesn't mean those beers aren't solid IPAs, or aren't true representations of the style.  For instance, most people consider Pliny The Elder to be one of the best IPAs (or best beers) around.  Although I've never had it, it's unlikely that I'd rate it more than a 7 out of 10.  Keep that in mind as you read this review.

Clintonville's Lineage Brewing produces Spaceship #6 IPA.  A long-time science-fiction fan, the brewers had me at the word "spaceship" and I had to try it... even though I don't like the style.

As you can see in the image, Spaceship #6 is a beautiful beer to look at.  It's bright and clear, a nice gold color, with a thick white head that lasts a long time and leaves behind a lot of lacing.

The aroma, as one would expect for IPAs brewed with certain hops varieties, has a strong grapefruit element to it.

The flavor matches the aroma.  You'll primarily get a strong burst of hops bitterness with a pale malt backdrop.  The malt is far in the back, as you'd expect for an IPA.

Despite that fact that I generally dislike IPAs, I don't hate this one.  It's bitter.  It's more bitter than I would ever want a beer to be, in fact.  But despite that it's not horrendously bitter like Stone Ruination and some other beers.  I probably would never order this again, but if someone gave me one I'd be fine with drinking it.  That's very high praise for an IPA coming from an avowed IPA-hater.  So although I'm rating this only 6 out of 10, my typical range for an IPA is 3-5, so Lineage has managed to make an IPA that's a bit more drinkable to me than most.

If you want to try Spaceship #6, you'll want to visit Lineage Brewing soon.  They promise to periodically swap out and tweak their recipes, so you may find that Spaceship #6 isn't available if you want too long to get there.