Voyager Brewing Devil's Kettle IPA Review

Name: Voyager Brewing Devil's Kettle IPA
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 6.8%
IBUs: 70

Well it's been about 2 weeks but I'm back. I apologize for the lack of updates but I've been a very busy person so writing hasn't exactly been at the top of list of priorities but I'm back and ready to go.

While I was in Duluth a week or so ago, I picked up a beer from the Voyager Brewing Company based out of Grand Marais, MN, which is located about 2 hours up the North Shore from Duluth. Right now, their distribution is, to my knowledge, only in Northeast Minnesota so the availability is somewhat limited at this time.

I have their Devil's Kettle IPA, which according to the awesome folks at Mount Royal, is the brewey's top selling beer. I got this as a single since it was the only one available and I didn't feel like spending money on a six pack, of which they are bottles as opposed to cans.

Appearance - Very dark brown color with a high amount of haziness. The head is quite foamy & off-white in color but not alot left behind in terms of lacing.

Aroma - Strong piney & bitter hops with a moderate amount of caramel maltiness and some light roasted and chocolate notes.

Taste - Very strong bitter hops upfront and equally strong piney hops with some very light caramel malts to back it all up. The aftertaste has an extremely bitter hop finish, way too bitter for my liking as a matter of fact.

I try to be supportive of all the craft beer here in Minnesota and I always want to find the good in the beers I have. With that said, I don't think that this is good at all. The big problem here is that is just too bitter and piney with little maltiness to help offset it and it comes off as very imbalanced. It actually makes me wonder if they missed a malt addition in the brewing process.

I'm glad that the North Shore is more covered in terms of breweries but I really expected something more along the lines in terms of the quality that I've gotten used to from that area of Minnesota.

Voyager Brewing Devil's Kettle IPA - 3/10