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Russian River Pliny The Elder

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“…water or wine when a salamander has died in it is fatal, and so is even drinking from a vessel out of which one has drunk; and similarly with the kind of frog called a toad! so full of traps is life!” –Pliny the Elder, Natural History.

Russian River Pliny the Elder

THE BEER

So full of traps, indeed. One of the most pernicious to the craft beer fan of course, is chasing the hype. Nearly every week groups and forums are awash in the talk of another brewery’s upcoming limited-release beers. The ‘pretrade’ offers go up often before people have even tasted the offerings. But within a short time the crowd moves on. Certain beers however, maintain their high demand and profile. Pliny is one such rare beer.

The basics are well know. Considered the original double IPA, Pliny the Elder began life being brewed by Vinnie Cilurzo as a special anniversary release back in 1994 while brewing for Blind Pig Brewing Company. It came back to life at Russian River as Pliny when they were asked to enter a double IPA festival.

It is now brewed in limited batches most of the year. Despite being brewed year round, their output was originally limited to 3000 barrels annually, increasing to 14,000 in 2008. Not nearly enough to satisfy the demand, Russian River actually pulled out of its already small distribution a few years back to better satisfy local customers. Still, you can usually find it on draft at the Russian River brewpub, and infrequently at better bars in California, Oregon, Colorado, and for some reason, Philadelphia.

The name comes from the legend that warrior/historian Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, wrote and possibly named a variety of hops. As usual the perspicacious and scholarly Martyn Cornell gets into the weeds with primary sources over the truth about Pliny the Elder having been the first person we know of to mention hops in writing or not. By my reading it seems as likely as not, but there is significant doubt. Whatever the truth, the name and label have become a craft beer icon.

TASTING NOTES

Commercial description from Russian River’s website: “Pliny the Elder is brewed with Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops…”.

From our less than two week old bottle, the pine and citrus nose comes rising up from the Darlington beer glass. Double IPAs often have a blast of malt in the nose, but it is barely present here. Honey colored beer is topped by a significant white head, fading quickly from the 8% ABV. The taste is a the same crushing piney/citrus hops with some potent bitterness. the malts should be double a traditional IPA, and the show up in a big way here, helping to dim the bitter notes from the hops. The finish is modestly sweet, with a lighter mouthfeel from the good carbonation.

CONCLUSION

What a joy it is, when the legend is real. Greatness is a big IPA can be a tough mix. Big hops brings equally big bitterness, all things being equal. And the malted grains, giving flavor and sweetness to an ale, can be a greater challenge. Cloying DIPAs, many of them Pliny knockoffs, are brewed throughout the world these days. The real deal manages the trick of balancing this duplication and more, making a bigger amazing beer.

Russian River’s Pliny the Elder has been named a best double IPA, even best beer in America many times over. While having sampled this beer many times over the years in bottles and on draft, we cannot disagree with the praise. The original is still the standard barer. If you can try it, you must.

9.0/10

Craft beer review of Russian River Pliny The Elder
Russian River Pliny The Elder
Date Published: 05/31/2015
9.0 / 10 stars

 

The Alchemist Heady Topper

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The Alchemist Heady Topper

Heady Topper. Some say the best beer in the world
The Alchemist’s Heady Topper

Note: For this review, Dave and I are combining forces once again, this time for a simultaneous review, both from the mainland, and on a tropical isle, connected via the audio of long distance cellular telephony. The cans are from the same batch, about 4 weeks from the cannery at the time of our tasting. Now for the writing about beer.

To talk about Heady Topper, we first need to talk about Tropical Storm Irene. When this squall blew through Vermont in 2011, many businesses were heavily damaged, including John and Jen Kimmich’s Alchemist Pub & Brewery in Waterbury. Financially strapped already from the recent building of a cannery, the Pub was ultimately abandoned, and the cannery repurposed as Alchemist Brewery. What was a loss to the Waturbury residents in terms of nightlife, was a windfall for beer lovers everywhere.

With FEMA not covering basement property in the downtown, the old brewery could not be recreated in such a high risk location. Instead, The Alchemist Brewery was reborn at the cannery location atop a nearby hill. They started brewing their flagship double IPA Heady Topper in 10 oz cans. The beer has proved so popular that despite increasing production, have not been able to brew enough to meet demand. It seems people can’t get enough Heady, or other Vermont beers like those from Lawson’s Finest and Hill Farmstead. Having visited Vermont a few years back, when loading the cabin up with local beer essentially meant Magic Hat # 9, we can attest to how the quality and variety of Vermont beers have increased. And the buzz about these new craft brewers has spread beyond the granite state. So much so that the local beers are now some of the most valued trade commodities within the craft beer community, with Heady Topper topping Beer Advocate’s oft-cited ‘Top 250 Beers’. So is the best beer in the world something canned from Vermont? Let’s pour it out and find out.

THE BEER

Drink from the can! That is what the Heady Topper can tells you to do, and brewer John Kimmich recently did an enlightening video explaining why they feel this way. He essentially argues that inside the car the beer stays protected from light, as well as air, with a layer of CO2 sitting above the beer, protecting it from oxidation. Makes sense, but you lose some of the nose on a beer like an IPA and aluminium is not as good an insulator as glass is, leading to more rapid temperature changes. For these reasons, we chose to try the DIPA both from the can, and from a glass. That, and I had a really cool Heady Topper glass I wanted to use…

The Alchemist brews Heady with 6 hop varieties, coming in at 120 IBUs, and 9% ABV. In their words: “This Double IPA is not intended to be the strongest or most bitter DIPA.  It is brewed to give you wave after wave of hop flavor without any astringent bitterness.” So the promise is all of the hop flavors and aroma many love, with less of the bitterness that can turn some palettes away from IPAs.

TASTING NOTES

Dave: Looks like a wheat beer, unfiltered and cloudy. Big hop profile in the nose, minor biscuit malts as well. Taste is all hops, tropical fruit with pine, not Bubblicious gum. There is a graininess with some hop solids present. The finish has dryness from the 8% ABV that makes you want more. The yeast here may be helping make this so balanced. Could drink a lot of these, which might be dangerous. Would rather session a Zombie Dust, but this is a great highly hopped DIPA.

Steve: The pale gold color is clearly murky and unfiltered, reminding me of an IPA that sat too long with some floaties. Aromas are minimal in the can, but from the glass there are citrus hoppy scents, and some malt. Flavors are initially a surprise. The hops are there but there is much less bitterness you would expect to pair with the aromatic pine/tropical fruit notes. There is a significant malt backbone as well, not quite enough to call this sweet, but certainly it is less bitter than many DIPAs. Bell’s Hopslam comes to mind here: big hop presence with minimal bitter bite and a well hidden high alcohol content. But where that beer uses honey sweetness to balance the big hops, which still eventually build up, Heady seems to simply be devoid of most astringency. The body is significant and as Dave said, grainy, with that dry finish that tempts you to take another hop-centric sip.

CONCLUSION

Having sampled Heady Topper in both the can and a glass, we both feel this beer is one great double IPA. The issue of the can providing the best experience is less clear. If you are going to be sitting around in the sun drinking Heady, the can is for sure the way to go, it will be protected from the elements of light, and air, as well as have a nice insulation. However, if you are indoors, drinking such a delicious ale, these beer is not going to sit long in your glass, and you will not only get a great taste, but all that wonderful aromatic hop ecstasy in the nose.

In either vessel, does this compromise the BEST BEER IN THE WORLD however? To us it doesn’t quite reach that level. The amazing work done to remove the bitterness in big IPAs has a downside. There are flavors in those huge more astringent DIPAs, where the bitterness matches other flavors, such as Pliny the Elder, Abrasive, or even a lower lower ABV beer like Zombie Dust. For me, with all the complexities available to brewers with yeasts, barrels, and exotic adjuncts, no IPA is likely to be my top beer. That said, this amazing beer is certainly near the top in terms of sessionable DIPAs, incredibly enjoyable hop experience even for those beer lovers that shrink from bitter beer. Pick up a few the next time you are in Vermont.

9.0/10

Craft beer review of The Alchemist Heady Topper
The Alchemist Heady Topper
Date Published: 10/12/2013
9.0 / 10 stars

Best Double IPAs in Winter

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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.

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA with Ashton VSG

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For this beer review we tasted Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA with Ashton VSG cigars. As an educational experience, tasting an ingredient surpasses any lesson or text. In the beer world, knowing what makes a great porter is best understood by trying other beers with Crystal 77 and Chocolate malts. Learning the flavors of the key elements, enhances the understanding of the whole brew.

Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA and Ashton VSG Cigars
Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA and aged cigars pair well

To taste hops on their own, American craft beer fans can now seek out “single hops” IPAs. These pale ales are a bold play by brewers hoping to capitalize on hop heads interest in educating themselves on certain varieties of the piney flowers. While normally using a blend of hops for aroma, bittering, and flavor, in these beers they are giving the beer geeks just one.

TASTING NOTES

Steve’s Take: Pours a nice orange with minimal froth due likely to the high ABV. Big grapefruit at the start with a hugely sweet, malty body that is designed to hold up with all the Simcoe loaded in there. The malts do their job and this DIPA is well balanced.

8/10

Dave’s Take: Not a lot of hoppy aroma beyond a general medicinal element.  The finish is an all encompassing piny, piney/citrus hop blast-off. A bit too much something. Not enough hop complexity to be great.

8/10

CIGAR PAIRING

We were not sure one variety of hops could hold up in an IPA, trying to pull all shifts. While not in our top 10 DIPAs, this was really good and worth checking out. As importantly to the evening it held up well with our cigar of choice for the night, Ashton VSG.

The Ashton VSG (Virgin Sun Grown) Enchantment is blended by Carlos Fuente Jr. from excellent 4-5 year old Dominican tobacco. We thought this would be a good pairing with our DIPA as the VSGs have a reputation for big flavors. The Enchantment produces a  good draw, even burn, slightly tough pull but a very good ash from the wide ring gauge at the base it is lit from. We got moderate spiciness well matched with a cocoa, leather note. A very good cigar.

Aged for over 4 years in a humidor this cigar has likely mellowed a good bit. Still, the piquant tobacco holds up more than enough to match with the hops of the Simcoe IPA and the sweetness had a nice match to the malts within the Weyerbacher single hop IPA.

Beers with potent sweetness and spice make fine pairings with big cigars. Be sure to give the combination a try.