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~
Good Beer Better Hats 