My latest Vue Weekly column is part profile, part beer review. I look at the first release from Two Sergeants Brewing, the soon-to-be Fort Saskatchewan brewery (read the article here). For the moment they are contract brewing with Tool Shed in Calgary.

I have profiled Two Sergeants on this website before (here) so will dispense with that part of the article. However, it is worth posting here because it was my first opportunity (aside from my CBC column profiling the brewery where we tasted on air. But my CBC columns are never posted online these days – damn that Stephen Harper!) to review their flagship Bangalore Torpedo IPA.

I can sum the beer up in two words: San Diego.

What I mean is that the beer reminds me of some of the IPAs I tried when in San Diego last August. Dry and quite light in body.

Bangalore appears like most IPAs, a light orange colour with a huge, rocky white head. The aroma is pine and grapefruit with a touch of grassiness. I like the delicate malt character upfront, bringing out soft honey and a bit of grainy toasted biscuit. But the beer goes a different direction after that. It dries out quickly and introduces an assertive citrus and pine hop bitterness with some rustic, woody edges. The finish is notably bitter and the linger provides strong, resinous pine and grapefruit, which builds through repeated sipping.

Lots of breweries talk about making West Coast IPAs. By that they generally mean a big citrusy hop presence and generally more hop-forward. However, as I learned last summer, what sets San Diego IPAs apart is how much they tone down the malt and dry the beer out.

Bangalore Torpedo is the most San Diego-like IPA have I tasted from a western Canadian brewery. Which means it will stand out in the crowd, I suspect.

Looking forward to see what else the two army guys have up their sleeve when their brewery opens.