A Trio of IPA's

I decided to postpone my rant so I could drink a trio of IPA's. I thought it might help me clear my head and crystallize my thoughts. It did exactly that, which will become clear when I get a ranting. The three beers in question here are two from North Carolina and one from New Belgium in Colorado. From the beautiful state of North Carolina we have, Highland, Kashmir IPA, and Mother Earth, Sisters of the Moon IPA. From New Belgium, we have their Ranger IPA. I'm gonna handle these one at a time and compare at the end.
First of is Mother Earth's entry, I really liked their other beer I tried, Dark Cloud. This creation is a cloudy dark gold to light amber. It has real mellow hop tones to the nose as well as citrus and caramel. It is very bitter up front, but has some nice lemon and honey flavors. The finish has a real bitter hop complexion, that really lingers. This is petty hoppy, but that's what you get in an IPA. I thought it was good enough to keep throwing it down. Nice, refreshing, a solid IPA, but a bit too much bitterness, especially on the finish.
Next up is Highland's Kashmir, which pours out a cloudy dark gold. As much as I liked Mother Earth's Dark, I hated Highland's Oatmeal Porter. This has a nice mild hop, apple, citrus nose. Wow, this has nice caramel apple flavors with a crisp hop bite on the finish.This has yummy well-rounded malts and a nice body. This is an outstanding beer, and the leader in the clubhouse by 15 strokes. I can't believe this brewery can so drastically over-hop a porter and then go mild with the hops on an IPA. It's the opposite brewery. Oh by the way their label is again a pack of slanderous lies. It says this beer has " aggressive hop Character ". This is the least aggressive IPA I've had, but it's perfectly balanced and delicious.
Finally, we have Ranger IPA from New Belgium. This is a quite clear medium gold. The nose has a really strong, brisk hop. So strong it has that herbal evergreen scent, like a Christmas tree. But how does it taste? Well, just like it smells, except even stronger. It's like biting a Christmas, tree and chewing spearmint gum at the same time. You even get that strong tingling of the tongue you get with mint. Their are no beer like flavors here. I have to say it's a very unique beverage, and I kind of liked it at first. But, this tastes nothing like an IPA, or in fact any beer. They have made an interesting spearmint malt beverage. I never expected hops could be taken to this extreme, that it changed into a completely different flavor profile.
O.K, I didn't expect that, but let's sum things up. Highland's IPA was by far the best. This beer is beautifully balanced, and a joy to drink. The mother Earth IPA was also decent, but not nearly as good as the Highland. Finally, removed from the competition, is New Belgium's Ranger. I was trying to compare IPA's and they seemed to have mislabeled their spearmint malt beverage as an IPA. Congrat's to Highland, I'm going out now to buy more.

Mother Earth
Highland
New Belgium

Mother Earth Dark Cloud

Straying from the Outer Banks, but staying in North Carolina, we have Dark Cloud Munich-Style Dunkel Lager. Dark Cloud is made by Mother Earth Brewing in Kinston, North Carolina. That name leads me to believe they may be hippies. I have to say this is a cool looking bottle, really a work of art. Dark Cloud is also an awesome name. Anyway, who the frick cares, is the beer any good? Well, it's a nice medium dark brown, and it smells lovely. It has toffee and chocolate notes, you know, like a skor bar. There's also underlying hop hints. This is one of those lighter bodied dark beers, but it brings the flavor. There are strong mocha flavors here as well as some hop bite. This is really well balanced. The malts are really shown to their full effect here. Dark Cloud is good to the last drop. I'd say there's good things brewing in North Carolina. See, there did you catch that, that's called lame, lazy, hack writing. Well anyway, I look forward to trying some other stuff from this hippie brewer. I wonder if these heads are friends with the pot addled hippies at Magic Hat.

http://www.motherearthbrewing.com/