Day 40 (9/2/2011): Galactic Double Daisy Cutter by Half Acre Beer Company

Galactic Double Daisy Cutter was a special release by the Chicago-based Half Acre Beer Company which spun off their normal Double Daisy Cutter. The difference was that this beer utilizes the Galactic hop variety, a hop grown in Australia which just happens to be the latest craze in IPAs.

It poured a very hazy orange with at most one finger of white head formed of tiny little bubbles. It dissipates onto a thin film on the surface of the beer. This has to be one of, if not the, best smelling IPAs I've ever had the pleasure of drinking. There are very dank, resiny hops, more on the fruity side of the spectrum than floral. You also get a good deal of citrus (orange and grapefruit) with a slight caramel sweetness in the background.

The taste starts with citrus hops, leading into tropical fruit with a touch of honey sweetness. It finishes slightly bitter. The taste is great, but it doesn't quite live up to the smell. The carbonation is creamy and slightly under medium with a medium-heavy body. Somehow despite all of the dank hops, this manages to finish a little dry. Pretty unexpected.

This is a great smelling, great tasting DIPA. It's not the best Ive ever had before, but I am very glad I got the chance to try it. I will most certainly be looking for any other varieties of Double Daisy Cutter that Half Acre decides to put out. I give Galactic Double Daisy Cutter by Half Acre Beer Company an A-.


Style: Double/imperial IPA
ABV: 8%
IBU: ?
Beer Advocate: A-
Ratebeer: 97/79

A buddy picked me up a bottle at the brewery release for $11. If you didn't get a bottle then, you're probably not going to be able to get one.

Day 38 (8/31/2011): The Oracle by Bell's Brewery

I was amazed to find some singles of these about a week after they were bottles up at Bell's earlier in August. Not only does it have an extremely limited distribution, but I found them for $2.99 a bottle! I only picked up a couple of them - one for myself and one for a trading partner - leaving the rest for whoever was lucky to find them. It was very, very difficult not to buy all of them that were there.

This is the much less talked about double IPA brother (or sister) to Hopslam. While everyone clamors for the latter, many don't even know the former exists. It seems far more of a limited release, so that might have something to do with it. What I found was that The Oracle is just as impressive (if nor more so, depending on your tastes) as Hopsmal, though it is an entirely different offering of the same style.

The Oracle pours a beautiful clear orange with a short, maybe one finger tall effervescent white head. It recedes quickly, leaving a slight bubbly layer on top of the body. The smell is hops, hops, hops. I get a ton of pine with a slight whiff of citrus-grapefruit. More pine - leff citrus and fruit than Hopslam. There is some sweetness, but this doesn't smell like a balanced beer, which here smells wonderful.

In a pleasant surprise, this beer ends up tasting magically balanced, despite the smell. There is a lot of grapefruit hoppiness up front, balanced with a strong malt backbone which never lets the hops get out of control. The only bitterness in this beer is in a pine finish. Usually I can't stand bitter finishes, but the sweetness stays on your tongue through it, tempering the bite a bit. Even though this is a 10% beer, there is hardyly any booze in the taste or on the tongue/throat They did a great job hiding the high ABV. If anything, it adds a nice spiciness to the flavor, reminiscent of a rye addition. This is certainly a big beer, but it drinks well with medium carbonation and body.

Boy, do I wish this was more readily available. I think I might actually like it more than Hopslam, though admittedly it's been since early this year since I've had a bottle of it. I would love it if they were released more closely together so I could do a side by side comparison without one of them being significantly older than the other. Which you will like is largely dependent on your tastes: this is definitely a more of a West Coast IPA with a lot of pine and resiny hops. Hopslam is more malt forward, with grapefruit and sweetness dominating the taste. You owe it to yourself to try both, though, if at all posible. I give The Oracle by Bell's Brewery an A.

(P.S. Keystone in Covington tapped a keg of this last night. If you're lucky and it hasn't kicked yet, you can go grab yourself a pint of it)

Style: American double/imperial IPA
ABV: 10%
IBU: ?
Beer Advocate: A-
Ratebeer: 100/99

Picked up from the Root Cellar in Kenwood for $2.99 a bargain. It is obviously distributed in Cincinnati, but if you're trying to find a bottle now, you're probably looking too late.

Day 22 (8/15/2011): Japanese Green Tea IPA by Stone Brewing Co.

I was really, really looking forward to this beer. As soon as I heard of this Stone collaboration, I knew I had to get a bottle as soon as it was released (more details about the collaboration and the beer itself here). It has so many things going for it: a. it's an IPA, b. Stone is brewing it, c. it has green tea in it, and d. it's for a good cause. Can't go wrong, right? Let's see about that.

The first thing you'll notice is that they are some mega floaties in these bottles. I have no idea if it is the tea or hops, but proceed with caution when pouring. Even with a careful pour, the beer is a murky, unfiltered orangish. It has a pretty frothy, though not large, head.

The smell is a hop extravaganza. The first thing that hits you is the scent of tropical fruit, followed by a blast of pine. There is some malt present, but it takes a backseat to the pungency of the hops. Sadly, any green tea smell that may have meant to be there is overwhelmed by this same great odor.

The hops in the nose are all present in the flavor, but balanced a bit better with a substantial malt backbone. It's not balanced by any means, but it's enough to keep it from being one dimensional. It has a nice hoppy dry finish without being overly bitter. The only thing that hurts the flavor for me is a strong booziness that is not particularly well hidden and an almost complete lack of green tea flavor. It's there, but just barely.

The mouthfeel is about typical for an IPA: medium body and carbonation. There is some alcohol burn from the 9.2%.

So what is the verdict? It is definitely an above average double IPA, but it is disappointing that the green tea flavor and smell were so overwhelmed. This had an opportunity to be a very, very creative beer, but the concept just didn't work out in execution. If this beer were 6-7% ABV instead of 9% the green tea might have shined through a bit better, but 9% it is. I'll probably never buy it again, not because it's a bad beer, but because it's $4 for a 12oz bottle. That's not much bag for your buck. I give the Stone-Baird-Ishii Japanese Green Tea IPA a B.

Style: American double/imperial IPA
ABV: 9.2%
IBU: 70
Beer Advocate: B
Ratebeer: 92/83

Picked up at Marty's Hops and Vines for $3.99 a 12oz bottle. Available pretty much everywhere Stone has distribution.

Day 13 (8/6/2011): Glen's Hop Vice Imperial IPA by Oakshire Brewing

 In the massive haul I received yesterday (picture of which was in the last post), one of the goodies was a swingtop bottled filled with a single batch imperial IPA  named Glen's Hop Vice from Oakshire Brewing in Oregon. I threw it in the fridge right when I opened the box and this was the first bottle I got to enjoy.


Glen's Hop Vice pours a golden body with a fluffy, milky head. It leaves a good amount of lacing on the glass as it dies down. The nose is very hop forward, with a background of caramel sweetness. The hops are fruity, citrusy, resinous deliciousness. The hop flavors are so strong and fresh that they almost seem dank. Very good.

The taste is pretty much the same. Very complex hop flavors, with a good sweet finish. The hops bring a grapefruit flavor, which is one of my favorite tastes in an IPA. The taste is maltier than the nose, but this brings it to balance

I thought the body was really thick, but I forgot this was an imperial IPA, not a regular one. For the former, it still might still be a bit thick, but not by much. The carbonation is medium and about perfect. The booze feel is a little upfront, but the burn is only small.

I give Glen's Hop Vice Imperial IPA by Oakshire Brewing a B+. It is a very good imperial IPA, but in a very tough style, it doesn't live up to some of the heavy hitters. It's still a very good selection, though, and I would definitely recommend it and would grab a pint of it if I ever saw it on tap.

Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: ?
Beer Advocate: A (Only three reviews)
Ratebeer: Not available due to too few reviews

Acquired via a special box from Oregon. If you're not in Oregon right now, you probably won't be able to get ahold of it, considering that it's a one off batch.

Day 11 (8/4/2011): Hopknocker Imperial IPA by Schmohz Brewing Company

Classy, right?

When I was up in Michigan last month, I picked up a bunch of singles from obscure Michigan breweries and this was one of them. I know absolutely nothing about the beer except that it is brewed in Grand Rapids. I had never heard of the beer or the brewery. 

A search over the brewery's website yields, about Hopknocker:

"After many nights of requests for something for a more serious Hop Heads, the brew staff pooled opinions and ideas. When a consensus could not be made they decided to throw it all in the pot. The resulting construance of hops and barley fermented violently for several weeks, and produced an exceptional aromatic beer." 

So, in lieu of a recipe, the haphazardly through a number of ingredients in the pot and hoped for the best? Luckily this description is clearly nonsense, or I would be concerned from the get go.

If someone poured this beer for you, you would have absolutely no idea it was an IPA. It pours dark like a barley wine, with a tan head. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of sediment from the bottle that was also poured into my glass, so there are floaties. It would have been nice to be warned about sediment so I could have left it in the bottom of the bottle. Sort of irritating.

The smell has a lot going on. You get a combination of slight pine hops, a brown sugar/caramel sweetness, and quite a bit of booze. The smell is somewhat dominated by a malty earthiness that, like the appearance, seems a lot like a barley wine.

The taste is a pretty decent amount of hops with a good deal of sweetness. The roasted malts factor in here with a good amount of charred sweetness and dark fruit. Not particularly complex or groundbreaking. Again, not an IPA.

The beer has moderate carbonation and a thick, almost syrupy body. There is a little bit of tingle from the carbonation and the pretty high ABV.

This beer isn't terrible, but I wouldn't say it is great or even really good. One thing is for certain; it is misclassified. I have no idea how a brewery could screw something like this up, but it is certain amateurish. I definitely wouldn't buy one of these again. There was at least one thing in each facet of the beer which irritated me.

I give Hopknocker Imperial IPA by Schmohz Brewing Company a C. It's not disgusting, but it's not worth buying when there are so many other options out there.

Style: Double/Imperial IPA
ABV: 9.5%
IBU:
Beer Advocate: C
Ratebeer: 47/3

Purchased at Siciliano's Market in Grand Rapids, MI for $1.99 a single. It's a pretty small brewery, so I'm not sure if it is distributed outside of Michigan.

Day 10 (8/3/2011): Hop Flood by Quaf Bros. (Brewed at Rivertown Brewing Company)

The idea behind Quaff Bros. is very, very unique and cool. A bunch of guys who work at the Party Source across the river in Kentucky have been crafting small batch, barrel aged beers and having them contract brewed at local breweries around these parts. The two breweries used so far have been Mt. Carmel and Rivertown, with the latter being responsible for the brewing of this beer.

I haven't tried any of these before, but saw a bunch of these singles the last time I was in the store and decided to give it a whirl. They only put out a few hundred bottles of each release, so I didn't want to miss out on something I probably would never get to try again.

I've read conflicting information about what this beer actually is: either a strong ale aged in rye whiskey barrels or Rivertown's Hop Bomber double IPA aged in bourbon barrels. Unfortunately this beer isn't listed on Quaff Bros. website yet, so a little clarification is needed. Regardless, it is a barrel aged beer.

The pour isn't really much to look at. Even a pretty aggressive pour yielded only half a finger's worth of white head that disappeared pretty quickly after the picture was snapped, leaving no lacing. The beer itself is a coppery-amber color, on the darker end of the IPA scale, but still almost transparent.

The smell, oddly enough, was very reminiscent of candy. The sweetness and caramelization of the malts blends seamlessly with the rich vanilla flavor of whatever barrel it was aged in. The hops are way in the back seat here; you can smell them if you try, but you really have to try. Does it smell like an IPA? Nope, but it does smell great.

The real kicker: how does it taste? May barrel aged beers have a tendency to have the beer flavor overwhelmed by the flavor of what was previously in the barrel.

I have to say, for a recipe drawn up by a handful of guys and then crafted in a small brewery, the flavors of the rye whiskey/bourbon are remarkably balanced with the taste of the beer. It is primarily sweet and malty, with the hops on the finish. A great deal of the complexity of the barrels is apparent in the form of the same vanilla and caramel as in the nose. Just like the nose, this isn't really your typical IPA taste, but it is delicious.

The carbonation is low on this, which is pretty typical for most barrel aged beers. There is a slight astringency and a little alcohol burn, but nothing major.

So what do I do with this? It is labeled as an IPA, but it surely doesn't taste like one. Then again, I don't know what a barrel-aged IPA tastes like and maybe this is it. All I know is that, other than a few moderate qualms I have (more hops! less astringency!), this is a really nice beer. I'll cave to subjectivity and give it an absolutely fly by the seat of my pants mix of how it keeps to the style and how much I enjoyed it. Based on that bit of calculation I give Hop Flood by Quaff Bros. a B+. I will definitely be buying every other beer these guys make, if for no reason other than the delicious barrels they use to age their beer in. I hear there's a porter coming out soon (feel free to email me if you need a review!)...

Style: Barrel-aged Double IPA (?)
ABV: 9%
IBU: ?
Beer Advocate: A- (4 reviews)
Ratebeer: Rating not available due to too few reviews


Single bottle purchased at Party Source for $2.99. You can only buy these at Party source and only a few hundred bottles were created, so don't miss out!