Cambridge House Beer Co. IPA

Cambridge House IPA
22 oz bottle, $4.49++, 6.9% ABV
Purchased at Maximum Beverage, West Hartford

I really don’t have much to say about this beer at all. it’s just another contract brewed IPA that has some hops and a decent malt balance. And I’m talking early 21st century hoppiness, like some bitter and not much more.

None of these crazy citrus or pine or floral hops we’re all so ga-ga over in 2014. In fact –

Cambridge House Beer Company says:

Traditional English IPA brewed with all English malts and hopped with a blend of English and American hops, high in strength, bitterness, and aroma.

Which is perfectly fine. Simple, traditional IPA’s are brewed and drunk by the hundreds of thousands every day all over the Europeanized world. Well made ones will always be appreciated by me. But beyond that? Nah. They just “are” these days.

Cambridge House Beer Company says:

A refreshing, nicely constructed IPA, very easy to drink, especially for the alcohol content.

Oh. Hello Cambridge House Beer Company again. Sorry, I thought you were done. I didn’t know this was a stream of consciousness description on your part. My bad. And by the way, 7% was a higher ABV back in the day; like maybe 10 years ago or so. However, these days we have all sorts of DIPA’s north of 10% with no alcohol burn whatsoever. This braggadocio is pretty silly.

Since I believe I may be writing these CH Beer Co. reviews post mortem, it doesn’t bother me to point out that this outfit was one of those contract brews that liked to carry on the illusion that they weren’t a label-only contract brand. Their beers were brewed at the much-maligned Paper City in MA for a while, but they quickly moved over to the decidedly average Opa-Opa brewery up there.

CHBeer Company liked to put a bunch of pictures of ‘the brewery” on their site – like this one, which becomes sort of funny when you look at pictures from Opa-Opa.

Note: I don’t care a whit about contracting. It’s perfectly fine and many great beers are contracted. It’s just when you hide it that it’s kind of silly.

Cambridge House Beer Company says:

A very nicely balanced beer that has a rather unique hop profile – a must try!

What the? They’re still going on about this beer? Why? There is nothing at all unique about this beer’s hop profile. Nothing. In fact, it seemed to me to be the most standard IPA hop bill of any IPA I’ve ever had. Simcoe, Fuggles, maybe some Centennial. Whatever.

I really don’t have anything to say about this beer. It’s perfectly fine and if you happen to see a mountain of them piled in the discount cart, they – oh wait, it’s an IPA. They’ll suck.

Never mind.

Overall Rating: B-
Rating vs. Similar style: C+

Cambridge House Beer Company
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