Fernie Brewing have been crafting good ol’ lager and ale in their namesake BC mountain town since 2003.  Their Last Cast Summer IPA is an appropriately themed offering to pop open then, as this is the last entry for the Beer Diaries Summer Guide for the time being – the season seems to be in its last gasps for 2014, and the shadows are indeed casting longer. No indication on the label as to what exactly makes this a ‘summer’ IPA, though.

This 650ml bottle pours a hazy, yet bright medium golden yellow hue, with two pudgy fingers of puffy, bubbly, and loosely foamy dirty white head, which leaves some stellar Swiss cheese lace all around the glass as it slowly, lazily recedes.

It smells of musty, slightly dank forest floor pine needles and leafy detritus, grainy pale malt, a ghostly whisper of caramel sweetness, hollow citrus rind notes, and further floral, earthy hops. The taste is bitter orange and grapefruit peel, grainy, crackery pale malt, a still stunned and underwhelming caramelized essence, a slightly rocky minerality, and mildly perfumed floral hops.  The carbonation is nice and frizzy in its swirling frothiness, the body clocking in at an adequate middleweight, and generally smooth – no frills, but no snags, either. It finishes a touch off-dry, the malt no longer really worth mentioning, as the hops muscle their way to center stage.

First contact sort of misinformed me on this one – that dankness that I’m starting to really tire of in West Coast IPAs blew off in a pleasingly short time frame. What’s left is an enjoyably old-school IPA – bitter, citrusy, piney, floral, passably malty, and a wee bit boozy – the gang’s all here, folks, ready to reel out that last cast on the waters this summer, or whatever the name of this offering actually means.