Day 20, 1.20.11, Lagunitas - Little Sumpin' Wild

A Christmas gift for my brother-in-law Aaron, I popped Little Sumpin' Wild open tonight.  It's a golden ale that comes in at 7.8% ABV.

Lagunitas has long been a favorite of mine, their IPA especially.  All of their beers are very high quality, they aren't afraid to add hops to their beer, and they have a lot of fun with it.  All three are  things I like in a beer.
And this one certainly does not disappoint.  It's a lighter beer,  fairly clear and with a good amount of white head.  The nose is big on hops.  They come through floral and grassy.
On the palate there are some interesting malt notes and some yeasty sour notes especially on the finish and back palate.  I later read on the website that this beer gets a partial wheat malt bill, and a Belgian hop strain, which accounts for some of its complexities.
As I said before though, Lagunitas is not shy with the hops and this beer exhibits an intense, nearly unchecked hop bitterness.  There didn't seem to be much in the way of hop flavor, just the bitter bite.  Actually, the flavor may have just been covered up by all the bitter.  On one level, I really liked that about it.  These intensely hopped beers are almost becoming a classic California style.  But another part of me missed having a bit of balance between that big bitterness and the complexity that I know is present in this beer.  Still a good beer, just could use a little fine tuning.  6 out of 10.