Name: Maximus
Brewery: Lagunitas Brewery (Petaluma, Calif.)
Style: Imperial IPA
Price: $9.99 per 6-pack
ABV: 8.2
IBU: 59
Final Grade: B
Score: 39

It’s been so long since I had an IPA.

This winter has been nothing but malt. Dunkel, doppelbock, porter, stout. Hops to the back, bread in the driver’s seat and roast riding shotgun. A streak of seasonable New England spring weather (50s, partly sunny, always threatening snow) had me longing for citrus. This is where Lagunitas delivers with Maximus.

Storm is the worst commercial beer I have reviewed here, earning the dubious distinction of being the only one so far to score below 15.

Name: Rattlesnake Rye-P.A.
Brewery: Squam Brewing (Holderness, NH)
Style: Rye IPA
Price: $6.50 per 22 oz.
ABV: 7
Final Grade: C-
Score: 28

If Squam Brewing is representative of what we’re going to get with the nano brewery trend, then I weep for the future. We may see a repeat of the microbrewery bust that happened in the late ’90s.

I don’t want to write off this new brewery yet. Founded in August 2010, it has had barely a year to work through its processes and the Rattlesnake Rye-P.A. is the only beer I’ve tried. Still, this is straight up homebrew. I definitely have produced equal or superior beers to this in my closet, and I’d be hesitant to serve this to unfamiliar company.

This is an ugly beer, and while its cloudiness can be excused because of the use of rye, the peppery spice was beat down beneath layers of green apple and lemon sourness. I also detected some oxidation, making this taste like a stale key-lime pie.

Name: West Coast IPA
Brewery: Green Flash Brewing Co. (San Diego, Calif.)
Style: American IPA
Price: $8.99 for 4-pack
ABV: 7.3%
IBU: 95
Final Grade: A
Score: 44

On my first and only visit to San Diego, I missed out on the chance to visit two breweries — Stone and Green Flash. Damned if I don’t wish I could do that trip over again.

They are both thoroughly West Coast breweries, crafting beers that are intensely hop forward and featuring local ingredients. Green Flash’s West Coast IPA is a great example of the regional approach.

The brewers at Green Flash clearly believe that IPAs should be designed to feature hops, and you’ll find no argument here. The West Coast IPA is highly bitter, but the hops also dominate the flavor and aromas — they are layered equally throughout the beer. There’s a light caramel flavor in the malt, which keeps it interesting, and though the astringency comes close to being overpowering, the beer still works.

This is where the whole beer judge thing is starting to F– with me.

Your hands are sticky with the golden resin. There are shopping bags full of green cones in a spare room, waiting to be used or dried and stored for later.

IPAs can be so messy and fun. So I went for double the pleasure.

Beers like Snapperhead IPA just don’t stand a chance.

The grilled peaches with prosciutto wrapped seared scallops presented a challenge to The Brooklyn Brewery.

More specifically, it was a challenge to Patrick Paulick and Garrett Oliver. Paulick is the New England regional manager for Brooklyn Brewery who happened to be guiding a cozy group of 20-or-so people through a beer dinner at The Perfect Pear Cafe in Bradford, Vt. And Oliver… well, you know who he is.

But just in case — Oliver is a kind of legend of gustation and grooming. He is the brewmaster at the Brooklyn Brewery and the author of The Brewmaster’s Table, an indispensable guide on pairing beer with food. He has been called “the Robert Parker of beer.” To that, I’d add “the pimp of primp.”

Anyway, Paulick confessed that the peach with scallops dish presented a conundrum. It’s just not a pairing they’d seen before. So what beer could accompany it? Which Brooklyn offering could complement the caramelized sweetness of the peach, the saltiness of the prosciutto and the fishy texture of the scallops?

Experiments such as the Estate Homegrown Ale are proof that Sierra Nevada continues to keep its heart in the right place.