The Barley Whine

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Best Double IPAs in Winter

January 20, 2013 by Steve 2 Comments

Cold weather months are the time of stouts, porters, and winter warmers. But a few brewers are magnanimous enough to grant a hop fan respite. Here we look at three of the best double IPAs in winter.
 

Through winter-time we call on spring

Layered up for Dark Horse BA Plead the Fifth
Layered up for Dark Horse BA Plead the Fifth

So who the hell decided that winter-time has to be all dark beers and the like? Did the people that green lighted another season of ‘Two Broke Girls‘ posit that, come late summer, Octoberfest marzens and beers brewed with canned pumpkin should start arriving on the shelves? That by Halloween, ‘Christmas’ ales must be filling shelves, long before astronomical winter has begun? Did some neo-hippie beard-O from the west coast brewmaster declare that the current trend in seasonal cuisine should be mimicked in brewing, despite the fact that hops are primarily delivered as dried pellets? Must we rage, rage against the dying of the hops? Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute is brewed all year long, so keep your man hammock on. In fact, there are scores of hugely hopped beers that can be had fresh throughout the morose months in which we ponder the cruel sky god that abandoned us to the dark chill.

Other Imperial IPAs available year-round include notables such as:

Southern Tier Unearthly
Harpoon’s Leviathan Imperial IPA
Lagunitas Hop Stoopid
Three Floyds Drednaught and Arctic Panzer Wolf
Avery Majaraja
Stone Ruination
The Alchemist Heady Topper

The Hypeslam Challenge

The Best Winter Double India Pale Ale
With all these options, why does it seem like frost alerts signal stout season? First of all, stouts and porters are delicious, full bodied brews that really do fit with cold days and dark nights. Knowing this, brewers release their seasonal dark beers during this time, to match craft beer drinker’s tastes. So Barrel Aged Blackout Stout or BA Plead the the Fifth just make more sense in winter. But that doesn’t mean craft beer fans have nothing hoppy to look forward to after National S’mores Day. For this review we will sample three limited release double IPAs that come out between December-January.

Inspired by our friend Bobby‘s tweet:

Take the Hypeslam challenge. Put it side by side w/ any other premier DIPA & realize what an unbalanced boozy mess it is

When I asked for suggested DIPAs that are similarly fresh, he mentioned Abrasive Ale from Surly Brewing. Taking that advice, I paired it with a beer getting a ton of buzz since it came out last winter, Lagunitas Sucks: Brown Shuggah Substitute Ale. The Abrasive is released in December, and the Hopslam and Sucks, in January.

THE BEERS

BELL’S  HOPSLAM ALE

ABV: 10%

IBUs: ??

TASTING NOTES: The smell is subtle, reminding me of Fresca or Squirt (grapefruit soda). Expected a bigger nose from this translucent gold brew. Carbonation is low. Taste starts our hugely sweet keeping with the soda pop nose. Then come the hops. More pine than citrus, but both are present. Finish has a nice hop bite, battling that honey/malt sweetness. Bitterness builds up as you drink hoppy beers. With a ton of sweetness, the bitter bite remains (somewhat) under control, making this imperial IPA quite approachable. But the label is a man being crushed by hops not honey: Give us more hops!

LAGUNITAS SUCKS

ABV: 7.85%

IBUs: 63.21

TASTING NOTES: A darker gold than Hopslam, Sucks has a mouth wateringly bolder nose of massive tropical fruits (mango, pineapple) with citrus and some bread-y malts and some alcohol. Mouthfeel is light, with a bit more carbonation than Hopslam. The flavors from Sucks are a drone strike of hops. This is what a DIPA should be! Resinous, citrus hop filled, with a sweet malt backbone to balance the finish. Hop lovers will be adding a new Lagunitas brew to the stable of wants.

SURLY ABRASIVE:

ABV: 9.0%

IBUs: “120ish” (from their website)

TASTING NOTES: Oh Yeah (Kool-Aid Man voice)!!!! What an explosive wafting of resinous esters, with pine and citrus. Easily the most potent nose of the three, or of almost any beer. Color is darker than the others as well, pouring a cloudy yellow/orange. Grapefruit, tangerine and pine open up the taste, along with some serious bitterness, although the malt backbone keeps it just balanced enough.

Best Imperial IPA in Winter

CONCLUSIONS

Double IPAs can be too bitter, or too sweet. DIPAs are an attempt to crank up the hop-level on a style of beer some already think is too hop dominant. The challenge is to give hop heads a beer that lets the flowery esters shine, while not brewing a bitter or malty mess. As we tasted for the best double IPAs in winter, the three beers each took a different approach to the style.

Bell’s Hopslam Ale was the onus for this tasting, and it does have quite a bit of hype behind it. While not finding it as unbalanced or boozy as Bobby does, this beer is sweet from start to finish. If you are looking for your first double IPA to try, or a dangerously easy way to put down 12 ounces of 10% ABV beer, this is the one for you. Bell’s use of honey is a better cover for booze and bitterness than what other breweries accomplish with malts alone. However, at 18$ a six-pack plus tax, this is an expensive price to pay for your sweet tooth. Finally, I noted, along with a number of others, that the 2013 batch has much more honey and less hop presence than in previous years.

Lagunitas Sucks tropical fruit flavors make it one of the best overall DIPAs around. If balance is what you are seeking, this one has an optimal application of bready malts, subtly applied to give the hop flavors minimal interference. While it lacks the clingy, unattenuated honey, Sucks is a delightfully drinkable ale.

Surly Abrasive, as the name would suggest, comes right at you. It makes no apologies about the dominant, dank hop flavors, adding only enough malt to keep the beer from finishing like Aspirin. Of the three, Abrasive is best of the group at making a hop head’s dream beer. Surly crushed this and I can see why a beer geek would prefer it to the sweeter Hopslam.

Double IPA is a style I enjoy, but find them less consistently good than more traditional or American IPAs. DIPAs are a high wire act, and all three of these beers pull off a delicious take on the style. Hop heads, however, will find the most joy in Sucks and Abrasive. These two are world-class, and a few of the best double IPAs released in winter.

Filed Under: Beer Reviews, Best Of Series Tagged With: Bells, Double IPA, High ABV, Lagunitas, Surly

Lagunitas DayTime IPA

September 20, 2012 by Steve Leave a Comment

Lagunitas DayTime IPA Review

Lagunitas DayTime A Fractional IPA

Big flavors drive American craft beer geeks. But often, the booze in an Old Ale or Double IPA seriously limits our intake. Putting back a few bottles of the delicious Apocalypse Cow on a Sunday of NFL viewing, can lead to a brutally hungover Monday morning. Presuming the palate fatigue from the all that bitterness didn’t do you in first. And that is a critical factor for hop heads, or anyone that has attempted sampling scores of double IPAs in a row. Bitterness builds on the taste buds, eventually becoming the only discernible element to the beer. The opposite of what people who enjoy craft beer want; a worsening of taste cured only by quitting complex ales for the night.

Thankfully, brewers have taken up the challenge to brew big time hoppy ales, without all the alcohol and bite. Victory, with their Summer Love, a hop-forward ale with only a 5.2 % ABV, has made a lawn mower beer for hop fans. Founders All Day IPA is another light bodied, well hopped brew that will not wear you down.

TASTING NOTES

Now, from the west coast, America’s piny hop capital, comes Lagunitas DayTime IPA stepping into the category. Super dank, pine and citrus nose, this beer exudes the perfume of their standard IPA, even the DIPA Maximus. The taste reveals Lagunitas did not let us down. This limited release beer has a clean, slightly citrus hop profile to match the nose. Massive dry-hopping has done amazing things here. Crisp and bubbly, the body adds to the quaffability of this IPA (really more of an American Pale Ale). Malts are very present here, passing off a biscuity sweetness that nearly blocks out the super subtle hop bite in the aftertaste.

Lagunitas DayTime A Fractional IPA
Lagunitas DayTime IPA
CONCLUSION

Funky nose, balanced big hop taste with almost no lingering bitterness. This beer is a dream to drink. But is it “sessionable” ? Sure, and not only because of the low ABV, but the lack of bitterness in the finish spares the mouth from that build up of acrid flavors that begin to overwhelm the ales that come after the first. Lagunitas has created a masterpiece of an ale, one which you can enjoy from the kickoff of the early game until Costas’ recap of the Sunday Night game. Try this beer now!!!

9.5/10

Filed Under: Beer Reviews Tagged With: American Pale Ale, IPA, Lagunitas

Prior Ideas

AIPA AleSmith American Pale Ale APA Avery Bells Black Ops Bourbon Barrel Aged Brandy Barrel Aged Brooklyn Brown Ale Cigar City Cleveland Beer Week Coffee Dark Horse DIPA Dogfish Head Double IPA Fat Head's Firestone Walker Founder's Great Lakes Brewing Company High ABV Hoppin' Frog Imperial red Imperial Stout IPA Kölsch Lagunitas Lambic - Fruit Milk Stout Pumpkin Ale Russian Imperial Stout Russian River Samuel Adams Sour Ale Southern Tier Stone Stout Surly The Bruery Three Floyds Troegs Wild Ale Willoughby Brewing

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