For those of you that missed the news, Red Chair NWPA (Northwest Pale Ale) is the new seasonal beer from Deschutes Brewery that is replacing Buzzsaw Brown and Cinder Cone Red. (Cinder Cone Red, in fact, is now in its last bottling, and only available in Oregon and Washington.) It’s based on last year’s Red Chair IPA, though the website lists slightly more IBUs in NWPA so the recipe has been tweaked slightly. Their own description:

What makes this copper colored beauty so wildly popular? As a debut Northwest Pale Ale, it’s an adventure all its own. It has a plush body with satiny caramel flavors derived from seven varieties of malt. Yet, despite it all, it remains a hop-forward ale with that distinctive citrusy punch. Just minus any mouth-puckering bitterness.

You’ll recall that I received several bottles of Red Chair from Deschutes just after Christmas. I was able to drink one after the New Year (and our week-long vacation).

It’s quite good; at 6.4% alcohol by volume it’s up in IPA territory but it doesn’t have the high bitterness of today’s typical American IPA; rather, they are really focusing on bringing out the flavors and aromas of the hops, not just the lupulin.

Appearance: Clear golden-copper color with off-white head. Nice legs.

Smell: Nose is full of the fruity-hoppy aromas that’s the signature of Deschutes’ experimental hop these days: with biscuit notes and bright green, citrus hop aromas.

Taste: Bracing mix of green leafy “salad” hops and crisp wheat-biscuit malt—malty-sweet and hoppy without being overly bitter—really, really tasty.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied and crisp with a nice freshly-hoppy aftertaste.

Overall: This could be a new go-to beer for Deschutes. Yum! Glad to see Red Chair IPA reincarnated.

(Neither one of the rating sites has this beer listed yet, it’s too new. But it’s similar enough to Red Chair IPA that I’ll list those stats instead.)

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.59 out of 5 and is in their 91st percentile.