Name of beer:  Rotator IPA: Spiced IPA

Brewing Company: Widmer Brothers Brewing, in collaboration with the Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity (QUAFF)

Brewing Location: Portland, OR (QUAFF located in San Diego, CA)

Type of Beer: India Pale Ale – ABV: 7.0% – IBU: 70

Beer Description: From Widmer: In the spirit of collaboration, we teamed up with San Diego’s Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity, or QUAFF for short, to brew Spiced IPA, a beer that offers an intriguing twist on the West Coast’s favorite style. Blending familiar flavors with unexpected ingredients, this hop-forward yet balanced IPA is brewed with malty assam black tea, ginger, cinnamon, clove, star anise, black pepper, and cardamom. The beer and the spices come together, much like the brewers behind it, to create one amazing brew.

The Beer Guy Review: After walking through the beer aisle at the grocery store, I settled on an IPA I hadn’t tried yet, the Widmer Brothers Spiced IPA.  I am a fan of the India Pale Ale, and have been known to have a spiced beer from time to time, moreso around Christmas time.  I thought this beer should be a nice, different take on beer, and one I might enjoy.

This beer is part of the Widmer Rotator IPA Series, “developed to showcase the Widmer Brothers brewers’ penchant for experimentation and to give lots of latitude for innovation within the broad IPA style.”  Upon first whiff, it smelled like it would be a keeper.  After the first few tastes, I didn’t think this beer was half-bad.  After a few more tastes, though, in The Beer Guy’s opinion, they gave the brewers extreme latitude in this concoction, and can keep rotating.  Thankfully, this is only a limited release beer.

I struggled through one bottle of this at dinner, but figured the beer deserved a second chance the following day.  Unfortunately, I came to the same conclusion.  This beer just doesn’t cut it for me.  What does it for me is the aftertaste…one of tea, malty assam black tea.  Note to Widmer and other brewers: maybe it’s not too wise to include an ingredient with the word “ass” in it.  Note to The Beer Guy: read the label next time before buying a beer.

I’m not quite sure what the intent was with this.  I’m all for the school of thought that says combine individual things you like to make one really good thing. For instance, ground turkey, Spanish rice, corn and hot sauce are all fairly good, on its own.  Combine it, and you’ve got a splendid bachelor meal called “Phamilicious”.  But tea and beer?  Perhaps Widmer thought that combining the second and third most popular drinks globally could overtake #1, water.  I don’t know.

What I do like is that you still get elements of a traditional IPA in this beer.  In addition, the alcohol content can give you a slight “buzz” after drinking one of them.  At first thought, I was thinking that I would share this beer with family as a late April Fool’s joke (“Here, try this great new beer I bought the other day”) in order to get rid of it, then drink their beer.  But now, I may just drink the remaining four bottles.

As for a rating, I had this originally pegged at a 1 of 7 (Is it that bad?  Yes), but after second tasting, thought it deserved more.  I couldn’t justify giving it a 2 of 7 (College freshman party beer) because let’s face it, Widmer produces much better product than a Natural Light.  So, The Beer Guy’s final review is:

I may just have another, yes.  Would I buy another 6-pack, not likely.

So, what do you think?  Have you had this beer?  Do you like it?  Do you not like it?  Send me a note at The Beer Guy’s mailbag, TheBeerGuy@lifeofdad.com.  You can follow me on Twitter as well, @TheBeerGuyLOD.  Take care, happy (and safe) drinking, and enjoy your weekend.

About The Beer Guy – A dad, husband, friend and drinker of beer. I review & blog about it all on LifeOfDad.com, the premiere social networking website for Dads.  The Beer Guy enjoys IPA’s and Pilsner’s, but will really try any kind of beer.  You may disagree on some of his opinions.  Let The Beer Guy know.  Reviews are published on Thursdays.  The mailbag is open on Tuesdays.  Read more here to learn about The Beer Guy, who he is and his beer rating methodology.

The Beer Guy, and Life of Dad, promote responsible drinking.  Never drink and drive.