Brew Love: Short's Brewing Huma Lupa Licious

The holidays are great, don't you think? We're delighted to take time to share this part of the year with friends and family. This year, one of our good friends made the trek back from their home state of Michigan to share some fun beers they found back home. Seeing a few of the bottles sporting some unfamiliar names, we knew this was going to be worth the trip.Short's Brewing, if you haven't heard of it, hails from Bellaire, Michigan. They pride themselves on being a Michigan-only brewery. Sorry kids, you can't just head down to Cheers or Coaltrain and grab some of this...you'll have to make a trip East. By staying hyper-local, Short's has been able to concentrate on what they do best: brewing top notch beer.Ok, on to the beer. We were excited just by the fun nature of Short's mainline IPA's bottle to start. Brewed with five different varieties of hops, Short's bottle describes it as "A complex malt and hop theme park in your mouth." Now don't let that think that this beer is all marketing... Huma Lupa Licious is a no-nonsense IPA.They're not kidding.Pouring a beautiful golden yellow, 'Lupa Licious is effervescent at the start, yet calms down as time goes. Flavor wise, this beer plows through your tastebuds, ushering waves upon waves of bready malt and sticky hops. Suprisingly juicy after an intial bitter bite, the balanced aftertaste lingers, almost certainly enticing us to take another sip. Although packing a punch at 7.7% ABV and 96 IBUs, this beer sure goes down easy. It's become increasingly common for IPAs to become somewhat a dime a dozen, but some beers still rise above. Short's Huma Lupa Licious is easily one of our new favorite IPAs. Now we just have to find a way to get more. Cheers!