Tried this last night and I was very disappointed, not least because it was an irrationally expensive bottle - almost $9 for a 24 oz. bottle. The result? Overly sweet. Not offensive, just out of balance.
Double IPA's like this are hard to pull off under the best of circumstances. Try Dogfish Head's 60 minute, 90 minute, and 120 minute IPAs side by side and you'll see what I mean. The 60 minute is nicely balanced and drinkable, the 90 minute gets a little sweet and odd tasting, and the 120 minute is like drinking beer flavored cough syrup. Not a happy experience (the 120 minute is a whopping 20 percent alcohol by volume. Most beers are, say, 5 percent or thereabouts, most Double IPAs are around 9 percent, so this beer is WAY out there on a lot of levels).
But for some reason, I had higher hopes for this Breckenridge beer - I guess I made the classic mistake of equating cost with quality.
If you want a good Double IPA, try some of these: Weyerbacher's Double Simcoe, Stone's Ruination IPA, Avery's Maharaja, and Victory's Hop Wallop. All of them manage to walk that delicate Double IPA balance: High alcohol and intense hops without becoming unpleasantly sweet and heavy. I hear the Three Floyd's Dreadnaught is excellent, but I have never managed to get my hands of any. What I have tried of their stuff has been impressive.
2 comments:
If you're not careful there mister IPA, people are going to start calling you "Mr. IPA."
In fact, that may be a warning a too late.
Wow! Look how easy the word verification is today! Hardly garbled at all, and nice and short:
"wjyst"
That would be "Dr. IPA" to you, Buster.
My brother visited last weekend and we had a couple of beers and he shook his head and said in wonder "You're so hoppy." And he was right.
Post a Comment