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
