Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company in Red Lodge, MT

The Bent Nail IPA from Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company already gets points for its name. Something about the name Bent Nail makes me want to drink this beer after a day of work. It sounds like a worker’s beer. It’s probably rough. And rugged. A meal in itself. Hell, the brewery even advertises it as such. Considering its tough facade, and the company’s dedication of this IPA to Red Lodge‘s “hard-working contractors,” this beer had some touches that made it one peculiar IPA, especially cropping up in Montana.

Pouring a pretty standard golden-amber hue out of the tap at the Red Atlas in Helena, the Bent Nail IPA had a pretty good hop nose to it, as well as a slight head that made it appear to be standard, hoppy IPA.  After sipping, a rather bitterless beer blended into a delightful, but surprising hint of sharp citrus fruit, almost like grapefruit, before finishing into a wall of chewy, thick hops.  It took almost half a glass to determine exactly what the middle notes of citrus actually were. But that odd grapefruit touch was clearly there, even though you wouldn’t expect it out of a Montana IPA. High points to Red Lodge Ales for using an ingredient that deviated from Montana’s normal crop batches.

Overall, this is a very pleasant and refreshing beer for anyone who likes their IPA to be on the fruitier side, but also with a good deal of thick hops that stick on your tongue for the duration of your drinking session. Is this something a group of construction guys want to throw back at the bar after a day in the Montana summer sun?  Maybe, but they’d have to be in a fruity mood; and that’s something I don’t think happens too often with contractors in Red Lodge.