La Cumbre Elevated IPA

Have you ever had one of those adventures that you get so caught up in the fun you forget the details? Well that is exactly what happened to me during this weekends adventure into some beautiful canyons south of Sante Fe, NM. While scouting out this beautiful area I new I wanted to try some new beers and hopefully get some great pictures for BOTW, well I can say that I did exactly half of that…I had a great beer, but sadly no pictures in the canyon.

This week’s BOTW is a fan-freaking-tastic IPA from La Cumbre Brewing. More than likely unless you are from New Mexico you have not heard of this Albuquerque based brewery, but man is it worth hunting down.I have been trying to steer clear of IPAs because it seems like thats all we review sometimes, but I could not resist this one. It comes in a 4 pack of 16 oz cans and the tag line of “get elevated” written across the rim of the tan can, which also features their 2011 gold award for this beer in the American IPA category at GABF! Ok, ok, ok, enough about then damn can, the beer pours a caramel orange that is topped with a nice blanket of tiny pure white bubbles. The lacing left down the glass is like a thick blanket hugging the sides of the glass as the beer smoothly goes down my gullet. The bitter sticky hop punch is ideal for me, at 100 IBUs and a very pleasant grapefruit and lemon blend combined with the essence of awesomeness balance nicely this 7.2% American IPA. The carbonation is a bit on the light side, but maybe that is from it being jostled around in the cooler on all of the rough roads we took, or hell maybe they intended it to be that way. I kind of look as carbonation to be a front line of defense, keeping me from draining the deliciousness in the first sip, so on the hot summer days in the desert, it was welcome not to be too harsh. I guess the only thing I wish could change about this beer is if it was distributed in CO….or I had bought a few more.