Mala-Letra IPA

I make it a rule to review no more than three beers in a session, lest my palate become muddied. However, as we all know, some rules are made to be broken. During my visit to Letraria Craft Beer Garden in Porto, I found myself three beers deep without having tasted an IPA. I asked my new pal behind the bar and he consulted with a well-informed regular, and they settled on Mala-Letra IPA, a pan-Iberian collab between Spain’s Mala Gissona and Portugal’s Letra.

Just 6.5%, but 60 IBUs, Mala-Letra was a slightly cloudy, honey-gold ale under a bright white head. The beer came in the smallish 33cL cans favoured in Portugal. It had a rich and deep nose, dominated by Valencia orange notes. The flavour maintained the orange presence, but also folded in some sweet malt initially, and a sticky resinous streak to the finish.

The result, to my mind, was a pretty convincing take on the classic American West Coast IPA. Stronger alcohol content would have been to its advantage, perhaps, but Mala-Letra was clearly mindfully brewed by people who take the gig seriously. My only other concern was the sweetness, which I found a bit too pronounced at the dawning of each sip.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.