Dogfish Head Burton Baton

 

Brew: Burton Baton

Brewery: Dogfish Head Brewing

Style: Oak Aged Imperial India Pale Ale

ABV: 10%

Tasting Notes: If  its Dogfish Head and Hops I for one feel like I can rest assured that Its going to be well worth it from start to finish. This brew pours an off brown color with some awesome orange highlights around the edges. As far as a head is concerned there was only about a half fingers worth of off white fluffiness that dissipated before I could get the first sip down. The nose on this beer is just ridiculous, before I got into the craft beer side of things I really never realized just how many things could be in a smell or aroma! This beer runs a gauntlet between pleasantly sweet hits of vanilla tannins and oak mingled with rich maltiness to sharp citrusy hits of Northwestern hops. The mouth feel is medium- high with the carbonation coming in on the lower end of the spectrum. As expected once I got done falling in love with the nose on this brew the sip was equally pleasing and complex almost mirroring the aroma. The sip starts out with the oak and vanilla taking front and center followed by a very hoppy middle that fades into a bitter finish that returns to the malts and lingers with the oak. Once this beer warmed up a little the ABV and the oak flavors really start to overtake the blend. Our hats are off to Dogfish for produceing one the finest oak aged IPA’s we have had to date!

~Cheers~

Rating: 4.25 Hats

Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA 2013

Brew: Ruthless Rye

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing

Style: Rye India Pale Ale

ABV: 6.6%

Tasting Notes: As is usually the case with this brewery I am absolutely in love with the art for this beer label. Sierra Nevada doesn’t always go out of its way to get to artsy fartsy with the labels, but when they do they usually hit it out of the park ( ref. also their Narwhal Imperial Stout). Just the imagery that they employ here with the cloaked women standing with a big ass scythe in the midst of a half cut down field of rye gives the perfect word-image association for me. Not to mention the awesome use of texture/ shading coupled with roiling ominous skyline that is the one extreme point of contrast in the picture. That’s enough from the right side of my brain for one post, time to dissect this yummy looking brew!(Whips out a scalpel*CLANK*) Right! This beer pours a burnished gold color with orange highlights and a two finger off white head that lingers. The nose is an awesome blend of peppery spices from the rye along side some very solid citrus/ floral notes from the hops. The sip leads off with the rye being the star of the show lending this beer a really smooth spice that gets along beautifully with the big hop flavors that come in about the middle of the sip with a rush of mostly citrus and a touch of pine resin. The finish brings the rye back out for a bow along side some bitterness that hangs around a bit waiting for the applause to die out and catch a few roses in the meantime. I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet but I’m a pretty big fan of this beer and wouldn’t hesitate to go out and grab a sixer of it just for kicks. I recommend you do the same if you happen to be of a like mindedness when it comes to awesomely hoppy beers with a delicious twist to them.

~Cheers~

Rating: 4.3 Hats

Dogfish Head 90 Imperial IPA

Brew: 90 Minute

Brewery: Dogfish Head Brewing

Style: Imperial India Pale Ale

ABV: 9%

Tasting Notes: Since my first sip of dogfish head I’ve been an avid fan and I’m always stoked when I hear that they have a new brew in the works. This beer is near and dear to many a dogfish drinker and I’ve always enjoyed it when I’ve had the opportunity to do so. The reason for this beer being named 90 minute for those of us who aren’t in the “know” is because this beer is continually hopped through out the entire boil, now where I’m not 100% sure is whether the 90 minutes is in reference to the boil or the dry hopping after the fact(feel free to enlighten me). Enough of that though since there is a beer being reviewed some where in this article. This beer pours a dark gold-amber color with some lighter golden highlights around the edges. The head on this brew is about two fingers and an off white color that sticks around for a few sips. The nose on this IPA is all citrus and hops with a slight under current of malt. The sip achieves a very surprising balance between the hops and malts that we hadn’t really expected and since this was my first time trying this beer in an objective way, I didn’t recall it being so balanced, I just recalled enjoying it. The carbonation and mouth feel of this beer fall well within the mid range area which despite the ABV does help the sessionability of this beer to a point. The sip is malt going into some of the citrus that we got from the nose, it quickly fades back into malt for the finish with the expected bitter that lingers for a few seconds. Much as we loved this beer the flavor just didn’t quite get to where we thought it should as far as an imperial IPA goes. We were really expecting a lot more of a hop presence to this beer which I guess really is a pretty big accomplishment given just how “hopped” this beer gets through out the brewing process. So sure the hops never really overtake the flavor, but truth be told they don’t even seem to make an attempt. Instead they meet in the middle and just agree to give you a fantastic buzz.

~Cheers~

Rating: 3.5 Hats

Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA: Old recipe vs the new Hopology recipe

So this year the Boston Beer Company decided to switch things up with one of their year round IPA offerings that goes by the name of Latitude 48. Now for those of you out there who are not familiar with this brew is do my my best to bring you up to speed before I launch into this. This brew is known as Latitude 48 simply for the reason that the regions where the hops in this beer came from are located with in what is known as the hop belt which resides at 48 degrees latitude! The original make up of this beer as far as the hops go was Hallertau Mittelfrueh Noble hops, East Kent Goldings, Zeus, Simcoe®, and Ahtanum. All of these came from the “Hop Belt” growing regions in England, Germany and North America, now what they did with this latest version of this IPA is as far as I know just added the Mosaic Hop to the roster.  Mosaic™ is an aroma hop variety developed by Hop Breeding Company, LLC released in 2012. Mosaic™ offers a unique and complex blend of floral, tropical, fruity, and earthy characteristics that translate very favorably into several styles of beer. Mosaic™ is the daughter of YCR 14 Simcoe® brand hop variety and a Nugget derived male. Simply put this hop is a shoe in for an addition to this already kick ass IPA! I had considered doing a very cheesy Venn diagram sort of thing for this until I remembered just how much I hated those things in school and thought better of it. Anyways moving right along, the original version of this beer was one of my favorite Sam Adams brews as far as the year round selection goes, that is until I got my first whiff of the new batch and it officially won me over. Don’t get me wrong the old version of this beer had an awesome hop forward nose with some really great earthy, piney  citrus notes. When comparing the two the nose on the Hopology version has all the same notes as the previous version but also manages a brighter, fresher smell with a bit more of the citrus coming through. Also I cant speak to both the glasses being 100% identical as far as having been previously rinsed out and such, but the new batch has noticeably improved head retention. I digress, something that I noticed about the older batch is that as far as the sip goes upon revisiting it the balance leans a lot more towards the malt end of the spectrum then I had originally thought. It also has a malt forward finish that fades into kind of a hop burn at the end, the new rendition seems to us to be a lot smoother and achieves a flawless balance between the hops and the malts that was some what lacking from the first version. The mouth feel leans towards the heavier side while the carbonation is medium/ low. I am happy to report that the addition of the Mosaic hops seems to have done wonders for this brew and really comes through by way of a much more distinctive citrus note in the nose, the sip and the finish. So as far as we here at GBBH are concerned this re imagining of the Latitude 48 is the winner! I would hate to see these two brews face off in the ring because I would have to put my money on the Hopology knocking the other beer out with a great big citrusy right hook that would lay this malt heavy IPA low.     (sounds like a fun idea for a web comic!) Our hats are off to the folks at Sam Adams proving that you can teach an old beer new tricks. Click on the hopology Image for the full review! ~Cheers~

Out with the old in with the new?

Coming up we are going to do a head to head comparison of the old Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA to their new “hopped up” version of this delicious brew. Stay Tuned!