I am so excited IPAs are trending once again. I’ve advocated for the style since I sat down with my first 3 Floyds Zombie Dust more than a decade ago. I’m an advocate for all IPA styles: ridiculously dank, bitter West Coast IPAs; mid-America’s preference for American-grown Cascade and Centennial hops; a national obsession with session IPAs (ahem, Pinner); and the East Coast’s infatuation with high turbidity and a juicy hop aroma. Now, St. Louis has a bit of all these fantastic IPAs in our backyard with the addition of Narrow Gauge Brewing Co. in Florissant.
Narrow Gauge is a tiny three-barrel brewery housed within Cugino’s Italian Restaurant, and brewmaster Jeff Hardesty knows exactly what he’s doing with an East Coast IPA: high turbidity (very hazy), hop aromatics for days and a juicy hop-forward taste on the front of the palate with a clean, balanced bitterness on the back.
Narrow Gauge is only available at Cugino’s and to-go in 32-ounce growlers, so grab a seat at the bar, order up some meatballs and dirty wings and settle in – you’ll want to try all the Narrow Gauge beer. Here’s what I sampled on a recent visit:
1. Single Hop Beer: Citra (7-percent ABV)
Tropical fruit, citrus zest and onion round out this perfectly beautiful Citra hop expression. Juicy aroma, fantastic texture with a bit of dryness and a lingering bitterness will leave you wanting another.
2. Single Hop Beer: Mosaic (7-percent ABV)
Some slight herbaceous dankness is backed by stone fruit on the nose and a whole lot of grass and mango on the palate. Though not quite as dry and bitter as the Single Hop Citra, it is just as juicy.
3. OJ Run (8.6-percent ABV)
Named for a stretch of road and the shenanigans that took place on said road, this Imperial IPA is like drinking a tiki cocktail in a barn right after the grass was cut. Citra, Amarillo and Galaxy hops stack this aroma with passion fruit, lemon zest, straw and fresh grass. Despite the higher ABV, this imperial is incredibly balanced and not cloyingly sweet.
Katie Herrera is tasting room manager at Side Project Cellar and co-founder of Femme Ferment.
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This article appears in September 2016.