AIPA – The Barley Whine

Columbus Brewing Company Yakima Fresh Hop

November 30, 2014 by Steve Leave a Comment

THE BEER

As we have recently discussed, autumn is the time for hop harvests and therefore the rare window for fresh/wet hopped beer. GABF occurs in the same season. One brewery that stood out in 2014 judging for hoppy brews was central Ohio’s Columbus Brewing Company. Head brewer Tony Corder and his team took home a bronze medal in the American Pale Ale category, they also scored a gold for their Imperial Pale Ale Creeper. Port Brewing’s Silver 15 and Pliny the Elder came in second and third to CBC. So with these bona fides, we jumped on the chance to fill a little growler with their take on a fresh hop beer. Brewed primarily with fresh Mosaic hops from the Yakima Valley in Washington State, the specific hop breakdown was kindly shared by Tony Corder himself:

One of the great things about craft beer is the accessibility of people making the product, and the guys at Columbus Brewing are no exception; great people. Beyond the above info, we knew it was a fresh hopped ale and were amped to try it.

TASTING NOTES

CBC Yakima Fresh Hop pours out a translucent copper color with a pungent aroma of shallots, malted grains and fresh cut grass. A thin white layer of bubbles tops the brew. The palate gets hit with even more than the nose: scrumptious tropical fruits right up front from the Mosaic hops and a subtle citrus note, perhaps from the centennial addition. These hop flavors are extremely fresh, like drinking straight hop flowers, but better. Sweetness then shows itself, though without heavy grain flavors. Following the malts there is a potent bitter element, tastefully balancing out the pale malt. Our Yakima Fresh Hop sat two days in the growler and still had excellent carbonation, giving a refreshing mouthfeel. The drink-ability is high on this one. This is a delicious beer.

CONCLUSION

Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive. –William F. Buckley, Jr.

When I think about all the improvements commercial craft brewing has made in America in the past 10 years, I can see how WFB’s quotation aptly describes the evolution of change. Early improvements, such as increasing sterile brewing conditions, using proper yeasts, and educating customers on new products were relatively cheap. In an effort to keep innovating, brewers increased malts and hops making bigger and bigger beers, began barrel aging on whiskey and other things, and even took on the dangerous bugs required for sour beer. These advancements take brewery employees with greater skills, and more money for new equipment and ingredients. Fresh hops too, have a cost. Visiting farms to pick out the product you want, and then brewing with hops in fresh leaf form, that containing more alpha acids and oil than in the pellets, and clog up equipment, is a unique challenge.

It is for this reason that we are SO thankful that brewers like Columbus Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada, Deschutes, Fat Heads, and more continue to push the limits, and take the effort to brew amazing fresh hop beers. Yakima Fresh Hop was the best wet hopped beer we tasted this year. Seek it out the second you see it in 2015.

9.0/10

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Fat Head’s Hop Stalker Fresh Hop IPA

October 25, 2014 by Steve Leave a Comment

The state of Oregon grows a lot of hops. This has lead logically, to a large number of breweries; Portland claiming more breweries per capita than any city in the US. No matter their location, most often work with hops in the form of dried out pellets. However, the brewers with access to the limited window when fresh hop leaves can be used at their oily best for a bolder hop profile, one that cannot be replicated. Over the years, these seasonal beers gained a passionate following in the Pacific Northwest, leading to the Portland Fresh Hop Fest and many other autumnal events celebrating fresh hops.

Annual Yuma Lettuce Days — Let us celebrate winter crops

Then again, places like America’s winter lettuce capital Yuma Arizona also take pride in their seasonal crops. Selling all that lettuce may net you a ton of cabbage, but it doesn’t mean there is anything special about your greens, nor is it a great reason to paint your face. Heady Topper and Pliny don’t use these fresh hops, so is this just another parochial fetish of homerism, or can wet hopped beers offer something new and yummy?

THE BEER

Brewed in previous years for draft-only release at the brewpub, Fat Head’s Hop Stalker Fresh Hop IPA was first canned in October of 2014. Bless Fat Head’s for stamping a born on date! This can clearly showing ‘Canned on 10/14/14’. The 16 oz can also advises drinkers to, ‘Pour it slowly, unfiltered beer captured inside’. Surly seems to of started the trend of telling people with all that Greg Koch charm what to do with their canned beer (‘Beer for a glass, from a can’) copied by The Alchemist and now Fat Head’s. The Hop Stalker can goes further telling you to ‘drink it fresh’, ‘chill out’, and ‘Stalk a recycling bin’. What, no orders to ride a bike daily or grow a beard? These dictates to customers are becoming a marketing cliche like something out of Roddy Piper’s world in They Live. Hopefully the liquid inside the can is more innovative.

TASTING NOTES

Having not read the warning on the can about pouring too quickly, I cracked Hop Stalker and filled the pint glass as one normally would. The head is moderate in density, and dissipates at an average pace. Despite a fast pour, the beer came out a semi-transparent deep copper, not super cloudy. Nose is affirmative in its big time citrus fruits, blended serenely with pine needles and a strong dankness that foreshadows big flavor. The taste hits you right away with the pungent, fresh hop flavors of caramelized onion and citrus that only come from a wet hopped beer. Tastes like Weyerbacher Double Simcoe with a little less sweetness and more hop oil. There is a well balanced malt sweetness giving it some complexity. The finish is a predictable semi-sweet bitter bite that comes over-top the malts, along with a hint of the 7% ABV. With all the potent hop oils lacing your mouth, this is not a beer that compels an immediate second sip.

CONCLUSION

In the past few years, a number of breweries have taken on the logistical challenges of distributing fresh hopped beers. Founders has the consistently solid Harvest, Surly for a few years did Wet (not brewed in 2014) and Deschutes bottles Chasin’ Freshies, to name some of the most distributed. At the mercy of crop yields, and availability, wet hopped beers can vary year to year. All of the control of hop pellets goes out the window, and the wild nature of fresh hops can create beer that challenge the palette, as the brewmaster is limited in hop selections.

In this context, Fat Head’s Hop Stalker is a success. It takes the fresh hop and lets it be the star. Malts and yeast notes take a backseat to the ultra fresh hop flowers. Dank and very bitter, and loaded with what I believe are fresh Simcoe hops, the 2014 Hop Stalker is to IPAs what Islay whisky is to single malt scotch; unrefined and aggressive. With massive flavor and only a short window of availability, anyone calling themselves a hop head would be remiss to not try a fresh wet hopped IPA. Hop Stalker is a great example of what fresh hops can bring to a beer. Drink it fresh!

8.5/10

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Half Acre Daisy Cutter

September 29, 2014 by Steve Leave a Comment

Canned Pale Ales and IPAs, still fairly uncommon in most US markets, happen to be some of the tastiest pale ales on American shelves these days. Dale’s Pale Ale rightly gets credit as the first boldly hopped beer to be canned in-house by Oscar Blues back in 2002. Since then many others such as Surly in 2006, and The Alchemist in 2011. Even the iconic Bell’s Two Hearted IPA, bottled for years, is now available in a can.

THE BEER

American pale ale may be the most popular style in craft beer, with breweries like Hill Farmstead and 3 Floyds cracking out multiple variants each year. Lusted after brews such as Toppling Goliath PseudoSue and Russian River Hill 2/Row 56—perhaps may be the finest example of the style I have ever tasted—are also generally considered to be of the APA style. Half Acre Daisy Cutter as well fits the BJCP definition. It is, according to the brewer, a ‘west coast Pale Ale chock-full of dank, aromatic hops’. Not certain what makes one pale ale ‘west coast’ and another not, but a ‘dankness’; something that reminds some of onions or marijuana scents, seems to be the central theme. So Daisy Cutter should be slightly lighter in body and ABV than an IPA, but bringing big American hop flavors.

TASTING NOTES

Half Acre Daisy Cutter pours a translucent ruddy color with a thick, foamy, white head. The nose draws you right in with whiffs of pine, citrus, Amsterdam coffee shops and almost overwhelmed malts. Though not as pine forward as Pliny or Surly Overrated (which are DIPAs), Daisy Cutter still has a large hop scent off the pour that will lure in IPA fans. This is no British pale ale. Taste seems understated at first. When you unconsciously prepare for the palette crushing American double IPA, the Half Acre flagship starts off modestly hoppy, with a subtle malt backbone. But after a few sips you realize that instead of fatiguing the palette, this pale ale reveals itself as a nice blend of tropical, citrus, and pine hop varieties, without the cloying malt sweetness that accompanies many double IPAs. The mouhtfeel is a bit prickly with high carbonation, finishing an extremely clean aftertaste.

CONCLUSION

The modern American pale ale can be one of two things: a brewer’s modestly hopped pale ale, closer to its British cousin, appealing to the masses; or alternatively, a well hopped, yet still easy drinking ale that craft beer fans might flock to, but generally repulsing hop haters. Half Acre Daisy Cutter makes no compromise when it comes to bold flavors, choosing the less popular, more extreme path to a pale ale. Never lacking in taste, and yet never too much, this beer is a craft beer fan’s idea of a great, highly drinkable pale ale. The fact that such an enjoyable and sessionable brew comes in cans, means Daisy Cutter can bring the hops to more places, with less hassle. Another great Chicago-area APA, seek out a few cans of these anytime you get the chance.

8.0/10

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Sun King GFJ

September 7, 2014 by Steve Leave a Comment

Sun King Brewing’s Grapefruit Jungle IPA, or GFJ, brings the small Indianapolis brewers vision for a huge tropical IPA to a 16oz can.

THE BEER

Founded in 2009, Sun King seemed to come out of nowhere to strike a cord with craft beer drinkers from Indianapolis and beyond. Unfortunately, being a startup with limited production capacity, Sun King currently has distribution limited to intrastate sales. As such, most readers will have to travel to make some effort to same their beers. Hopefully a new facility in Fischers will get more of their popular beer such as the GFJ to shelves.

Sun King GFJ represents a strong statement by Indiana’s second largest brewer, declaring it “…an IPA as revolutionary as Rock & Roll itself”. Sharing a state with the likes hop addicts of 3 Floyds Brewing sets a certain expectation for what an IPA, and in particular an AIPA (think Alpha King or even Zombie Dust), should taste like. From the boldness of the commercial description to the intense graphics on the can, Sun King believes they are up to the challenge

TASTING NOTES

With a strong carbonation from the can, the blood orange IPA pours with good head retention, showing off white bubbles that are not quite foamy. The nose brings out the expected strong hop notes, although perhaps more citrus than the tropical fruits you would expect to dominate from the the beer’s name. There is some grain there, but again less than you might expect from the ruddy color. Taste is a revelation:the grapefruit and other tropical hop notes are all over this beer, followed by the biscuit malt and then the kick of bitterness from the 77 IBUs. This IPA might not win a gold medal based on a small sample, this is a recipe created to make a drinkable beer you want more of not simply after the first sip, but as you drain the last. The body is thick enough for the style, with the semi-dry finish with barely a trace of the alcohol.

CONCLUSION

I knew nothing about Sun King GFJ before this sampling, and was very impressed. The hop blend and water, yeast, and whatever magic makes an IPA taste the way it does all made this beer stand out as both slightly different than any other AIPA/DIPA in memory, and right in the camp with some of the best. Grapefruit Jungle is currently a limited seasonal release, so grab a can or two if you get the chance, this beer is a great example of what Sun King can do.

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