Torpedo - Sierra Nevada

Vitals:

Name: Torpedo

Style: American IPA

IBU: 65

ABV: 7.2%

Gravity: 17.3 degrees Plato

Purchased at: Harris Teeter (Herndon, VA)

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a pretty, clear amber color with close-to-bone-white head (half finger). Minimal carbonation from the look of it, but solid lacing. The retention is quite poor with a moderate cap. Nothing particularly special here.

Smell: This beer smells very sweet with citrus hops and malt right there for you. You get some piney hops too, but the smell (in general) seems muted. Don't get me wrong, this beer smells pretty darn good, but it's just very faint and not totally impressive.

Taste: This is VERY hop-forward. You get a tiny bit of grapefruit up front, but it's mostly sweet caramel and molasses malt at the outset to counter some of the hops. Citrus and floral hops hit early and linger with piney hops as well. This beer is mouth-puckeringly bitter, with the malts barely coming through toward the end. Having said that, it hides its ABV reasonably well.

Mouthfeel: Creamy, medium bodied beer...a little heavy for an IPA but with adequate carbonation. It really coats your mouth and dries you out quite a bit; definitely makes your mouth pucker quite a bit.

Overall Grade: B+

Comments: So I would've typically graded this as a B, and the only reason I bumped it up to a B+ is that it's pretty much a macro that you can get almost anywhere. It's a solid beer with a pretty good taste...maybe a bit more bitter than most IPAs out there, but for a macro it is solid. So, in sum, based solely on the beer it'd be a B, but the fact that it's a macro (and thus available in most locations) it gets bumped to a B+.

Cheers,

Hurls

Hopalicious - Ale Asylum

Ah, so many good memories with Hopalicious. Regrettably it has taken me quite a while to review this one, though it is one of my very favorite Wisconsin beers. Cheers to Marc for leaving a few of these as a leftover from the movie night we hosted back in the fall - that really got me turned on to Ale Asylum in general, and Hopalicious specifically. I also distinctly remember loving the fact that Ale Asylum provided fresh cascade hops to go with your beer at Quivey's Grove, which was fantastic. I will be trying to organize a big group for Quivey's this year and it should be even better than last year! Anyways, once Sarah got me a kegerator I knew the first beer that had to go in there...now on to the good stuff...

Vitals:

Name: Hopalicious

Style: American Pale Ale

IBU: ??

ABV: 5.8%

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: where HAVEN'T I bought Hopalicious? Hmm....

Descriptions:

Appearance: Pours a delicious looking golden orange color, almost to the point of being copper. Medium carbonation is evident from the tons of little bubbles excitedly rising to the top. The head content was less than I anticipated, despite being familiar with the beer, and it wasn't for lack of a good pour. All in all there was maybe slightly less than a finger of bone-white head, which surprisingly lacked retention but left a beautiful thick lacing on the glass.

Smell: Surprisingly, given the name, the smell is somewhat understated (especially compared to a lot of Pales out there). You get floral and citrus hops on the nose and a bit of sweet malt hiding in there. There may be a little fruitiness to it (grapefruit if I had to guess, but I'm not completely confident in that) but not too much.

Taste: This beer is very well balanced - you get sweet malt up front (not too much or too little) and you get the hop bitterness that hop-heads crave on the back-end of the beer. The hops are surprisingly piney with a citrus flavor as well. What's surprising to me here is that Ale Asylum prides themselves on putting in ELEVEN (yes, you read that right, as in ten plus one) separate additions of cascade hops to the boil. I am just becoming familiar with the brewing process, as I'm looking to try it out with Marc, but basically you boil the wort (will explain this in a later post) with hops for a long time (typically an hour, but some beers such as DogFishHead 90 and 120 minute IPAs, appropriately named by the way) boil for longer. The hops immediately added (and thus boiled the longest) are for bittering purposes, so you can get a lot of the bitter resins out of the hop cones. The later additions (boiled less) provide the main aromas and flavors. So, basically, with that long (yet quite abbreviated) explanation the puzzling thing to me is that Cascade hops typically impart citrus and floral tastes and aromas, yet I'm getting a lot of piney flavor here. It makes me wonder what the tight-lipped folks over at Ale Asylum are up to with this beer that they don't advertise. My guess is something like Chinook hops added with 15-20 minutes left in the boil but this is just pure speculation, since Chinook are known for being very piney. The key here is the smoothness of the bitter finish; you really get a sweet taste up front from the malt, then a pretty bitter piney bite, and then a surprisingly smooth bitter finish to bring you through. It glides off your palate rather than getting that scraping feeling that a lot of bitter, hoppy brews can give you.

Mouthfeel: Medium body with decent carbonation. I will say that the body is more on the light side of medium, so you could drink this all day (as I can personally attest to). You get a nice thin layer of residual resin on your palate, which is just right for this type of beer. You don't want your mouth to feel completely coated and overwhelmed, but this beer leaves you at just the right place: wanting to come back for more!

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: I consider this to be a close-to-perfect beer for year-round drinking; its versatility is very nice. I think it's light enough to be able to drink in the summer and give you a hopiness if that's what you crave. However, it's also bold enough of a taste, and not completely light bodied, so you can enjoy it when the weather gets cold. Most people know of my love for Ale Asylum beers (if you have a chance check out my post on Bedlam! and try that one out too). Also, as a teaser, I have a bottle of Ambergeddon (what a great name, by the way) in the fridge, awaiting tasting and review. This beer is available practically everywhere in Madison, on tap or for sale in 6 and 12 packs. If you consider yourself a hop-head, or have any interest in hoppy beers, this is a must-have staple of your beer drinking rotation. Go out and enjoy one and see if you agree with my assessment!

Cheers,

Hurls

Kiss the Lips IPA - Lake Louie Brewing Company

First Lake Louie beer I've had the pleasure of reviewing. 2nd to last remaining beer from the BYO 6-pack from Old Fashioned!

Vitals:

Name: Kiss the Lips

Style: American IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: ??

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: The Old Fashioned (BYO 6-Pack)

As a quick note - I am completely weirded out when a beer doesn't even tell you its ABV, whether online, on the beer bottle, etc. Extremely odd and quite weaksauce, if I might say so myself. Lake Louie Fail.

Descriptions:

Appearance: This beer is very pretty looking when you pour it out into a glass - a lazy hazy orange coloring, with minimal bone-white head (decent retention of what is actually there). The lacing is some of the best I've ever seen...sticks around quite a while and isn't spotty or overly resin-ey. LOTS of carbonation bubbles hugging the glass has me very excited about this beer!

Smell: Piney hops come through on the smell neither too strong nor too weak, just right. Smells quite a bit more yeasty than most IPAs I've had. Lastly, a very good malt smell and a bit of grapefruit come through to give a nice sweet aroma.

Taste: This beer is overpoweringly biting and astringent from the get go, which greatly detracts from the actual taste. The piney hops are somewhat bitter, but mainly sour to be honest. You end up with a lingering malt flavor on your palate, and a bit of tart yeasty taste. Definitely not a huge winner here.

Mouthfeel: The body is extremely light for an IPA, lighter than most I've had. There is a lot of carbonation, as predicted from the appearance, which is not a bad thing here. The main points on the mouthfeel would have to be the astringent and oily qualities of the beer. I love the oily feel, but astringent makes me feel like I'm drinking red wine - NOT what I'm looking for in a delicious brew.

Overall Grade: C

Comments: This beer is a bit boring to me and, on the spectrum of hops - malts the beer is WAY geared towards the malt side. This creates an imbalance that doesn't sit well with a hop-head like me - I'd much prefer to err on the side of hops over malts. However, if you're into a malty beer and don't want a big slap in the face from some hops then give this one a try. It's definitely not for me, and is a bit deceitful with its IPA classification due to the malt concentration.

Cheers,

Hurls

Lilja's Hop Nest Monster - Pangaea Brewing Company

I love the name of this beer - hoping that the taste will be the same. I've never in my life heard of Pangaea Brewing Company, but it must be a Wisconsin brew since I got it from the Old Fashioned BYO 6-pack

Vitals:

Name: Lilja's Hop Nest Monster

Style: American IPA

IBU: 77

ABV: 7.0%

Gravity: 17 deg. Plato

Purchased at: The Old Fashioned (BYO 6-Pack)

Descriptions:

Appearance: The beer pours a dirty straw color, lighter than I would expect from an IPA. The head on this beer is bone-white and reminds me on a meringue topping on a pie. This may be the most unfiltered beer I've ever seen or else it might be infected (yeast problem...insert jokes here)

Smell: Slightly floral smell with mostly grassy hops and toasted malts; maybe a bit grainy. The smell was not what I expected, much less strong than a normal IPA.

Taste: WOW! Full on frontal assault with the grassy hops, this beer certainly lives up to its name in that respect. The bitterness lingers for a long time, though I must say there's not much actual hop flavor, just the bitterness, which is a detractor since you get no complexity. The beer isn't very balanced at all, which is surprising given the grainy malt smell. Lemon and flowers come through a bit as the beer builds to the hop bitterness; you only get a small taste of the toasted malts (thus the imbalance).

Mouthfeel: This beer is medium bodied, but extremely oily and astringent. The beer really dries your mouth out AS you're drinking it, while most astringent beers I've had do that after you finish your sip. I really wonder if this beer is filtered AT ALL - there is a TON of debris that is suspended in the beer.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: I LOVE LOVE LOVE hops, but this beer just had no balance and wasn't doing it for me. I would drink this every once in a while to see if there's any degree of consistency to this beer, especially to see if the debris thing remains a problem. There are definitely better IPAs out there, go and find one!

Cheers,

Hurls

Texas Speedbump IPA - Great Dane Brewpub

So, the other night Sarah and I went out to the Great Dane to get dinner and a beer before settling in to do some homework (I know, right?). It made sense at the time.

As a quick aside, I would like to (from a past visit to the Dane, but this visit reminded me of it) emphatically recommend that people NOT get the Tri-Pepper Pilsner. I got it a few months prior in a sampler platter at the Dane (Downtown) and was utterly disgusted. It was like drinking peppers soaked in Coors Light and urine. I could not stomach it. Unless you love peppers do not get that beer.

At any rate, I asked my server which was better, the Texas Speedbump IPA and the Potter's Run IPA. He recommended the Speedbump, so that's what I went with. He gave me a sample of the Potter's Run, which only confirmed his recommendation and my selection. I found the Potter's Run to be flat. It came with absolutely no head, left no lace, and while it did smell good (like cinnamon and/or ginger) it just didn't resonate at all. I expect a beer to evolve as it hits different parts of my tongue and this beer was completely static throughout the entire experience. Maybe I just got a bad batch but I would definitely not recommend this beer.

On to the real stuff (apologies that the Dane doesn't have any stats on their beer):

Name: Texas Speedbump IPA

Style: IPA

IBU: ??

ABV: ??

Gravity: ??

Purchased at: Great Dane (Downtown) - Pint

The Descriptions: This IPA was a deep amber/orange when it arrived at our table, with about a finger of light, white head that stuck around as a nice lace for a while. The beer smelled very strong, as most IPAs do, of citrus and pine, but also had a minty smell to it. The beer was full-bodied with a grapefruit aftertaste. One of my favorite things about this beer was that it "built" nicely from the beginning of the sip until the finish. The bad part of this beer was that it was not very well-balanced with malts; the bitterness came through a bit more than was necessary, or expected.

Overall Grade: B-

Comments: This was not a bad beer, per se, just not quite as balanced as I'd like, and there are so many good pale ales (APA, IPA, IIPA, etc.) out there. It was actually a decent beer for the Dane, and I would buy it again there (if I don't get their Old Glory APA, or the Crop Circle Wheat). In my experience, I would go to the Dane for some Wisconsin Style Cheddar Mac and wash it down with one of their decent brews.

Cheers,

Hurls

IIPA - New Glarus

NOTE: due to a posting snafu this ended up being the 2nd post, but I submitted it earlier and the blog site screwed up. Oops

This is the first entry in the first blog I've taken seriously so I'm not exactly sure how to get going on this type of thing.

The first beer I am going to review is a Double IPA (IIPA) from New Glarus' "Thumbprint" Series. Beer stats are as follows:

Name: IIPA (creative, eh?)

Style: Double IPA / IIPA

IBU: 85

ABV: 9%

Gravity: 19.2 Plato --> ~1.080 original gravity

Purchased at: Riley's Wines of the World as part of a create your own 6 pack.

Availability: Not only is this a seasonal brew, but it's a special release from New Glarus, so get it while you can.

It occurred to me while typing the above stats that it may make sense to define some of the abbreviations used above.**

IBU - International Bittering Units, representing the most accepted method of measuring and expressing hop bitterness in beer. Beers will typically range from 5 IBU to 100 IBU. The human threshold is approximately 6 IBU and 6 IBU also represents the required change for a human to discriminate between levels of hoppiness.

ABV - alcohol by volume - if you went to college you don't need me to tell you this...

Gravity - gravity is an approximate measure of the amount of alcohol that may end up in a finished beer. Expressing this in terms of "Plato" is a European and American scaling which is based on a percentage of pure sugar cane in the wort. For instance, a 10 or 12 degree Plato beer would have original gravities of 1.040 and 1.049 respectively...meaning they are 4% and 4.9% heavier than pure water.

The descriptions:

In pouring the beer into my glass, I was quite surprised that it didn't have more head on it (insert perverted joke here). However, I looked into a beer book I have to see if I was pouring it correctly (I had the glass tilted and was giving it a slow pour). Turns out I was not - the book prescribes "boldly pouring down the center" (so I guess those old Bud Light commercials with the Asian guy whacking that dude with a reed and telling him to "Pour down center to release aROma and carbonation" were actually more than just annoyingly funny b.s. commercials). At any rate, I am obviously a newbie at this, so we will let my poor pour (ha ha, get it?) slide this time.

The beer came out a brilliant, a hazy deep gold or pale amber color. It doesn't help that I wasn't able to use natural light, but in my experience beer drinking is much more acceptable after the light of day has faded.

I know I will love this beer just from the smell - a completely hoppy/piney aroma accompanies this beer and it completely makes my mouth water. Pale ales are my weakness.

This beer is a pretty solid IIPA - I would honestly expect nothing less from the fine folks at New Glarus...they truly know how to make beer and if you are ever in Wisconsin you need to get some (they don't sell anywhere outside of the state). The beer gets a huge hoppy flavor without too much bitterness (relatively speaking, less than I originally expected). At 85 IBUs, it doesn't necessarily feel that way to me, not completely hitting me over the head from the onset, or even a lingering bitter flavor. It's a dry mouth feel, especially at the finish of the sip. The beer smells a bit sweeter than it actually is, as I have taken a few more whiffs and sips. Again, I am still learning how to do this stuff, so perhaps take what I say with a grain of salt.

I am thinking that they used a light biscuit malt in this beer, similar to a Hopslam (from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI). It's also somewhat fruity, maybe orange or grapefruit? It adds a nice kick to the beer.

Overall Grade: A-

Comments: Try this out if you can and if you like really hoppy and pretty bitter beers. It is limited so you need to move quick - another great brew by New Glarus!!

Cheers,

Hurls

** Definitions quoted from Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink by Randy Mosher