Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

While grocery shopping today I picked up a couple six-packs of beers I've never tried. Since the selection at Safeway isn't nearly as good as the one at BevMo, I didn't have much to go with.

My first pick was Pyramid Thunderhead IPA, because I like IPAs. They've got a brewery in Berkeley (along with Seattle and Portland), so I'm in keeping with my recent local beer theme.

To be honest, I don't have a whole lot to say about this beer. It's mild, and drinkable in that it doesn't have any of the strong flavors that might turn you off. But overall I find it fairly lackluster, and I've definitely had better IPAs.

My detailed thoughts:

Appearance - It poured a pretty light amber, with just a slight haze. A small but steady stream of bubbles rose to a 1-finger head, but that narrowed to a very thin cap within 2 minutes.

Smell - Very light. I asked my husband for help on this one given my well-documented problems with this category. He detected a little fruityness, and something herbal. All I smelled was beer.

Flavor - It's like a toned down IPA. There's very little bite and no complexity. There's flavor there, it's just very muted.

Mouth Feel - There's enough carbonation to leave a tingle on your tongue. I won't call it light-bodied, but it's definitely lighter than expected.

Drinkability - As stated before, this is drinkable the way Bud Light is drinkable. There just isn't enough flavor there to slow you down.