Saint Arnold Homefront IPA

May 28th, 2012 by Scott in Other Beer Reviews

It’s that time of year in America where we honor those who gave their lives serving this country in the Armed Forces. On this Memorial Day let’s take a look at the latest release from Saint Arnold, Homefront IPA.

This beer’s story starts with Chris Ray; you might know him as a pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. He’s also a homebrewer. Chris came up with the Homefront IPA recipe and brought it to Matt Lincecum, owner of Fremont Brewing Company in Seattle, in 2011. He also proposed brewing the beer and giving all the proceeds to Operation Homefront. Fremont brewed and sold Homefront IPA first last year and raised $10,000 for Operation Homefront.

This year, Matt Lincecum enlisted a few breweries to help reach a goal of donating $100,000 to Operation Homefront for 2012. Since Lincecum is from Houston, he reached out to Saint Arnold. Saint Arnold agreed and made 40,000 bomber bottles of the IPA. Among the ingredients for Homefront IPA is orange zest; Saint Arnold asked for volunteers to zest 2,000 oranges on May 9. Volunteers brought their zesters and were treated to open taps at the brewery while zesting the oranges. Also included in the recipe are six Louisville Slugger maple bats; one is currently being sold on eBay.

The beer itself is a hazy orange color with a nice white head. It has a lighter scent to it, but the hoppy and citrus notes are there. Taste has lots of citrus and sweetness up front, no doubt due to the oranges. Hoppy bitterness follows, but it’s lighter than you might expect. It’s an enjoyable beer and a little different than the normal Saint Arnold IPAs, but I would hesitate to call Homefront a better beer than Elissa. Endeavour is certainly better.

Still, partaking in Homefront IPA is certainly worthwhile as its proceeds are going to a good cause. As far as I know, making this an annual release hasn’t been announced, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Saint Arnold brews this for every Memorial Day. It’s certainly an good choice to toast our troops with!