Lucid Brewing Company is a brand new brewery in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Tonight I will give their Imperial Pale Ale a whirl (I don't know what they're going for calling it that, maybe not quite an Imperial India Pale Ale, but bigger than an IPA?). Lucid Camo is its name, and it has 9% Alcohol By Volume.
This will be my first exposure to a Lucid Brewing beer, and according to their website, they are trying to create approachable, yet high quality beers that might appeal to newer craft beer drinkers and convert them to the quality beer scene.
Lucid Camo is a clear amber colored beer, topped off by a bubbly, medium sized white head, which sticks all over the glass in a solid sheet of lacing.
The nose is a pretty even mixture of sweet caramel and pale malts, with a bright and fresh hop profile, largely citrus and piney with some floral and tropical fruit notes as well.
The sweet pale and caramel malts provide a pretty nice base, but are quickly washed over by the hops, which dominate the taste. Lightly floral, with a slight earthy influence, before traversing the prominent citrus, grapefruit and tropical fruit range, and winding up in a piney bitter region. A spicy alcohol is definitely detectable and comes off just a bit hot.
As I work my way through the bottle of Lucid Camo, I definitely understand why they are calling it a Double Pale Ale. Its not quite as aggressively bitter as your traditional Imperial Pale Ale, but definitely moves beyond what you would expect with most IPAs. So I would say that they have aptly described Camo with that appellation.
Lucid Camo is just a tad rough around the edges, but I feel that it nicely achieves its goal of being a smooth drinking yet flavorful dose of hops. So far Lucid Camo is the only beer that I have seen in stores from Lucid Brewing (I found it at the Four Firkins), but given this introduction to their beers, I will definitely be on the lookout for them as they release more beers going forward.
Lucid Camo : B+