Four days ago @trumpman started the 7 day beer challenge. I was nominated today by @abigail-dantes and I couldn't be more excited to participate!

This is the perfect time for a beer challenge as I just moved to Upstate New York and there are a ton of new breweries to try. I know a lot of people scoff at beer in the US, but the craft beer scene is rapidly growing all across the country. Most cities have multiple small local breweries these days and they're all experimenting with different ways to make beer. Although they're not all perfect, the competition means that tons of varieties are available and the overall quality is quite high.

Today's beer is Flower Power, an IPA developed by the Ithaca Bee Company. I'm actually quite familiar with the beer. I lived in Ithaca for 5 years while in graduate school and had plenty of chances to visit the brewery. They make excellent beer and their brewpub is a fantastic place to hang out. Flower power is one of their oldest beers and its somewhat notable for being an extremely hoppy west coast IPA way before those types of beers were popular. The name is sort of a double entendre. India Pale ales often have a floral aroma due to the massive amounts of hops put in them, but Ithaca also has a reputation of being a hippy/free spirit/liberal town.

Review

When I first had this beer 9 years ago, I didn't like it. I wasn't too used to craft beers back then and all of those hops left an unpleasant bitter flavor in my mouth. Whether my tastes developed or chronic alcoholism killed my taste buds is unclear, but this beer tastes fantastic to me now. I tend to like the hoppiness of IPAs and this beer has it in spades. Each sip tastes fresh, floral, and crisp. Some of my appreciation for this beer is from nostalgia, but its a great example of an IPA that doesn't pull any punches in making sure it tastes like an IPA.

The beer itself costs $1.50 and has a fairly high ABV of 7.2% so a six pack of this would knock me off my feet. I would absolutely drink this again and almost definitely will to continue to pay tribute to my time in Ithaca.

I'll nominate @replichara next solely because he upvoted my last entry in this competition.

#These are the rules to be taken into account:

• You have to try a new beer every day, for 7 days
• The beer must be something you have never tasted before
• You must put a photo of the beer and write a few words about it
  *Nominate someone every day
• If you are a social outcast with no friends to invite you just join the fun. You have every excuse to drink!
• Use the tag "#sevendaybeerchallenge" as one of your five tags.