Short's Huma Lupa Licious

Beer:  Huma Lupa Licious (HLL) 

Brewery:  Short's Brewing Company 

Date:  February 9th, 2014 

Style: IPA 

ABV: 7.7% 

Similar To:  Harpoon IPA (though I enjoyed HLL more), Dogfish Head Aprihop 

Description:

After a festive Saturday in Flossmoor and Blue Island, I sat down on Sunday to more closely examine the beers I received from a friend in exchange for Goose Island BCS.  By all appearances, the crown jewel of this collection was Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout (which I'll be tasting this weekend), but I was pleasantly surprised to find 3 other brews that I hadn't tried before.  The full list was:

1. Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
2. Lagunitias Sucks Brown Shugga Substitute Ale
3. Short's Good Humans Brown Ale
4. Short's Huma Lupa Licious IPA

I'd been looking for the Brown Shugga for a while as it's been very well-reviewed, but I don't ever recall having anything from Short's Brewery before.  One quick trip to their website and a little amateur arithmetic later, and I was astonished to find that they apparently have produced or are in the process of producing no fewer than 202 distinct beers.  As this obviously leaves me with a lot of catching up to do, I started right in with the Huma Lupa Licious IPA, and, as you'll hear, can only hope that I'm as impressed by the remaining 201. 

First Impression:

Golden and opaque with a thick white head which lingers for several minutes.

Smell:

Hoppy with light citrus, piney, resinous and malty. 

Taste:

Lots of hops with some citrus and sweetness around the periphery.  Finishes much less bitter than many IPAs, very drinkable.  

On the Palate:
Quite carbonated and smooth.  Neither heavy nor light.

Why You'll like It: 
Smooth hops and citrus are the highlights.  A very solid IPA to appeal to those who have had too many pedestrian ones. 

...and why You won't:
IPAs are an acquired taste, proceed at your own risk.

In Closing...:
There are many IPAs on the market these days and it's refreshing to run into one which renewed my enthusiasm in the style.  Many beers of this style wear on me after repeated tastings, but I have a feeling I could drink these all evening.

As a point of interest, the name is inspired by the taxonomic name for hops, humulus lupulus.  

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 5)