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Sometimes, you need to treat yourself to a variety of beers. Or so goes my thinking. Recently, I have been buying a load of the same beer types, in this case, IPAs, to do a kind of "beer tasting" with my friends and family. In this way, we can really discern the different tastes, smells, and mouth feels between beers from different breweries but in the same style.

I am a big fan of IPAs, as I always gravitate towards these heavier beers. In South Africa, craft breweries always have at least one type of IPA available for the IPA heads like me. Some of these IPAs are better than others, and even in IPA beers there are so many different types, from different yeasts, to different hops, to different grain bills - from toasted and cookie malt to roasted and black malts.

In this week's #BeerSaturday post, I gathered four IPA beers (hence, IPAs fo(u)r days!) for us to taste. All four of these IPAs are quite different, each having its own unique style. The Sabro Brut IPA I would say was a bit too different for this tasting, but it was a nice contrast for the others.

I did the tasting with my father, as my fiance does not really like these bitter beers (yet!). We really appreciated the differences in each of these beers, from the overly hoppy Jackal to the Bitter Bomb of the Godfather, to the big Swellenbrew, to the fruity and dry Sabro.

I share some of my beer tasting notes below.

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Karoo Craft Breweries: The Jackal IPA

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| IPA | 6% ABV | 47 IBUs |

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On the nose, it was very bitter. I like to call this the classic IPA smell. (Not the fruity NEIPA so common these days, but more of a bitter punch in your face hops.) There was a great balance between the hops and malt, such a smooth smell - if that is even a thing. Below this, I found a slight caramel undertone.

The taste did not disappoint in any form. Bitter. Challenging my taste buds, full-bodied, and a beautiful balance of hoppiness and malt. The taste lingered in my mouth long after I swallowed.

This was such a good beer.

As it warmed up, the caramel-toastiness of the malt came through stronger; it became a really complex beer.

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Saggy Stone's Sabro Brut IPA

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| Brut IPA | 5.8% ABV | 25 IBUs |

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This beer was a beautiful "interruption". It was a bit different to the other three beers.

The first smell was so fruity and zesty, with lemon up front.

The first taste confirmed this.

The beer does not have a lot of IBUs (it was not so bitter), and it did not have too much alcohol.

It was incredibly refreshing, a beautiful reminder of how different IPAs can be, from NEIPAs to bitter IPAs, to the brut dry and low alcohol IPAs.

There was no maltiness on my tongue, with the hops overpowering everything. As it warmed up a bit, the lemon flavour came through even more. It was incredibly refreshing. As I sipped on the other beers, I came back to this beer as a palate cleanser.

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Swellenbrew IPA

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| IPA | 6% ABV | 45 IBUs |

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The first smell was bitter, incredibly bitter. The almost 50 IBUs really came through on the first nose, especially with the type of glass that I also used. It was also very yeasty, most likely bottle conditioned.

The first taste was good and full-bodied. It was heavy to say the least, one that was also very challenging and not the run-of-the-mill beers.

Even though the bitterness of the hops overpowered everything, I still got some maltiness that came through.

As the beer warmed up a bit, the alcohol smell became more prominent.

Of all four beers, this one was not as good. But it was because, in comparison to the others, it did not shine through. It is interesting that this was probably due to us drinking the different beers right after another, with clear winners coming through to you as you drink. Biased opinions can cloud your judgement, even if only in taking a sip of beer!

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Darling Brew's Godfather IPA

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| IPA | 6.5% ABV | 32 IBUs |

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The last beer, the Godfather, was just like the other "classic IPAs". There was nothing too fruity on the nose, and again balanced between the bitter smell and the slight malt nose that came through. Ever so slightly, I could smell the caramel notes.

Much like the first beer, it was nicely full-bodied, a true "punch-in-the-gut IPA" as I like to call it.

It was a well-balanced beer, what you could expect from a big brewery such as this one. Again, I am a bit biased, as this reminded me of the bigger and better beer from them, the War Lord... But I digress. This was a solid beer.

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Postscriptum, or IPAs Fo(u)r days

And so another four IPAs get tasted, drunk, and enjoyed. What is life without a good beer?

We really enjoyed these beers, and it again shows how far South African craft beer has come. Even though it is still playing it safe, the beers that they offer are still incredible.

I hope that you enjoy this #BeerSaturday!

Cheers.

All of the opinions are my subjective own albeit inspired by the very smooth beer I drank. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.