Frye's Leap IPA, Sebago Brewing Co., Gorham, ME

We've reviewed Sebago Brewing Co. products on this site before, and last time they pulled in a middle-of-the-road 3.0. Apparently that was the high point.

The Frye's Leap IPA is apparently the flagship beer at Sebago. Normally, with an IPA, you'd expect a hit of hop aroma. Not in this beer. All of the hops are concentrated in the flavor, making it a bit bitter, though there are interesting flavors of citrus and sort-of pine. There is a lot of residue in the bottle, much like a homebrew, leading to a cloudy visual presentation. The ABV of 5.7% is not bad, but nothing special.

Let's just say, if you brewed this beer at home in a Mr. Beer kit, you'd be quite happy. And I don't mean that to be a compliment...

With a name like "Frye's Leap", you'd think that the label would have a cool story about jumping off of a rock into Sebago Lake. Maybe they could even talk about how that jump came to be known as Frye's Leap. The boys in Sebago's marketing department apparently disagree. I feel lucky that we even get a picture on the label.

Rating = 2.0

I knew that it was a bad sign when the most prominent thing on their website is a picture of the food at their restaurants, like chicken ceasar salad or a nice reuben.