Ogden Beer Master of None and Kiitos India Pale Ale 

• Mike Riedel

This week, we have two local beers that are new takes on old styles. The hops used are newer varieties that aren't usually associated with these particular styles. Do they work? Ultimately you will decide, but here are my impressions of these two new brews.

Ogden Beer - Master of None: This new-style American pilsner features Magnum and Adeena hops. Look for herbal and spicy flavor characteristics, with light floral, lemon and pine notes.

It's beautiful pouring beer—bright crystal-clear gold. As it pours, the most beautiful bubbles form so quickly, and in such quantity, and just as quickly float to the top and make the beautiful white head that you see pictured. The nose on this beer is so nice; it has such a refreshing and snappy smell, redolent of some citrus, grassy, pepper, water crackers and the glorious warm spring days to come.

This is on an extremely clean and crisp base, with light dough notes. The palate opens clean, crisp and lightly oily, lemony, minty, a little herbal and with some earthiness as well. A touch of sweet hop character emerges, along with dough, towards a clean, snappy finish.

Verdict: An absolutely delicious lager. This is not my first experience with Adeena hops, but for some reason they really shine in the lager. Adeena were made for lagers, adding some new flavors with old. It works so well in beers like this.

Kiitos - Limited Release India Pale Ale: This West Coast IPA is a modern take on the west coast style brewed with Citra Hops from the Pacific Northwest and Nelson Hops from Clayton farms in New Zealand. Brewed with over three-and-a-half pounds of hops per barrel, this beer is sure to satisfy hop-heads.

It pours an unfiltered golden yellow, with orange highlights. There's a huge, dense off-white head that fades slowly, leaving some chunky lacing as it does. Lacing is average, and it creates a fine web of foam that easily marks the glass as you drink away, kinda like rings in a tree. A good sniff shows some really nice tropical and white wine notes, with some very slight bitterness. I get mango, passionfruit, white grapes—very fruit-forward, rich but not with that overripe/dank fruit character.

This IPA starts with more pronounced sauvignon blanc notes of bright fruit acidity when I first crack the can. Some melon flavors creep in next, with some sweeter tropical notes lurking closely behind, coming out more as it's warmed in the glass. Minor flavors consisting of mango, pineapple and passionfruit are floating around in there as well. The angle here is fruit, with a medium amount of bitterness. This is a West Coast IPA, so bitterness should be part of the game plan and I'm glad hop dryness is present here. I think this delivers as a WCIPA, though I'm not picking up much from the 7.0 percent ABV (which is fine by me). Medium body, medium carbonation—pretty smooth and crushable.

Verdict: A very delicious take on a West Coast style IPA. This doesn't taste like previous Kiitos offerings, and definitely stands on its own. If this is a sign that things are changing over at Kiitos, I'm all for it, and I'm really looking forward to the next beer iterations.

Cans of the Limited Release India Pale Ale are available at Kiitos to take home; you can't enjoy this 7.0 percent ale at the bar, because Kiitos just has a beer tavern license (only beer 5.0 percent and lower). The Master of None lager is on draft at Ogden Beer Co. in Ogden, and is a limited release—definitely worth the trip. As always, cheers!