I have preferred the hazy IPA’s now for a while. The brewing association added both hazy/juicy pale ale and IPA as sub-classes this year for judging. You’re going to see them a lot more.
One key is that they tend to be less bitter than the overdone bitter bombs of some west coast style IPAs. They have a fruitier flavor too, and I like both of those points, a lot.
I like the Hazy made by Sierra Nevada, but the Juicy made by Barrelhouse, a very good brewery out of Paso Robles, California, was kinda disappointing. I think it was the first Juicy I probably wouldn’t have again.
Hey I had that one not long ago, indeed that was pretty good. I’m glad to see Sierra Nevada keeping a fresh lineup.
We’re lucky down here that Evil Twin Brewing out of Denmark chose one of its contract brewers for our region to be Westbrook brewing in South Carolina. Westbrook is already a fantastic brewery, so the stuff coming out of there by Evil Twin’s recipes have been crazy good.
At any rate, Evil Twin has had quite a number of hazy/juicy IPA releases over the last couple of years, all of them fresh and all of them really tasty.
For some reason, however, they have had the craziest names:
Art Is Anything You Can Get Away With
A Man Who Doesn’t Love IPA Easily, Loves Too Much
Bringing A Gun To A Knife Fight
Diane, Never Drink IPA That Has Been Anywhere Far From Galaxy
Consumed 15 Today, Diane. All Galaxy
Erase & Rewind
Erase & Rewind #2
Even While They Teach, Men Learn
Every Day, Once A Day, Give Yourself An IPA
How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything
I Always Felt Closer To IPAs Than I Did To People
I Believe I Was Visited By An IPA Last Night
I Don’t Know How To Put This But This IPA Is Kind Of A Big Deal
I Must Find A Truth That Is True For Me
I Plan On Writing An Epic Poem About This Gorgeous IPA
If You Look For Perfection, You’ll Never Be Content
If You Want The Rainbow, You’ve Got To Put Up With The Rain
Life Is Not A Problem To Be Solved But A Reality To Be Experienced
Man Is Born Free But Is Everywhere In Chains
…
It goes on and on and I realize I need a beer even typing about half of those out. For the most part they are one-off beers, very fresh, and usually similar to each other with perhaps slight hop profile differences. Almost akin to Stone’s “Enjoy By” series but with a different crazy name each time. They have bombers, large cans and thankfully we find it on tap around here.
I have no clue what’s up with the names, maybe the naming guy is on drugs.
Each time my girlfriend and i drink one we comment and talk about the beer name. It’s kind of kooky. If you see any in your area, inquire about when they arrived and if fairly recent, seek them out for a taste.
I would find it hard to remember the names of beers like that. I to think many breweries make different beers that are basically just slightly different from another one of their beers. Without them being next to each other they are probably indistinguishable. A local brewery makes features 7-8 IPA’s on their menu at most times and, at least to my taste buds, several taste alike. There are differences in alcohol content and clarity though.
We were wine tasting on the central coast a while back and visited a place where almost every wine was described by some sort of rock or mineral quality. I asked the server and she said the guy who wrote the tasting notes just liked talking about rocks.
I thought this was an interesting article about the rise of whiskey-beers. I have no particular interest in the Bud-Beam mass market offering, but the later bits that talk about the process and history are kinda neat. Nice little introduction for those that haven’t been in the craft beer scene and thus know about these beers already.
It’s CBS time…without the Mountie on the label but they got a nice horsie instead. Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning. Beer pickup first part of November.
If people are interested and want someone local to pick it up and send them the beer, I can do that. They allow proxy pickups. Just make sure it’s the Grand Rapids location, I ain’t driving to Detroit. :)
As I said in Tom’s breakfast stout thread, that sounds amazing. But I’d also never spend $25 for a bottle. That’s crazy money!
That said, have you tried one?
I really enjoy Evil Twin
The CBS? Yep, went down to the taproom and had a pint a couple of years ago. It’s excellent, no question. $25 is a bunch, no doubt, but I look at it as a once-a-decade-or-so extravagance.
That is my white whale beer. I’ve never come across it for sale or share. I’d be interested, although I don’t know how the procedure works. Let me know if you’re serious, I’ll kick in some for you as well. PM me your info if so, Bob.
CBS actually turned up in the UK last year, it’s really nice, though a touch artificial. Definitely recommended if you like KBS or the regular.
I might be immune to these things due to being a bit of a beer obsessive but $25 really isn’t that much for a high quality beer IMO. I won’t mention how much we paid for a magnum of 3 Fonteinen 2004 Oude Geuze Vintage at the brewery earlier this year as it might cause a few of you to head to an early grave, but it was utterly worth it, for the taste and the experience.
Left Hand is making 4 packs, in a can, of their Nitro Milk Stout.
Just as good as the bottle, I can now attest!
I managed to pick up a bottle of CBS and a 4 pack of KBS today. I was excited to win a Founder’s hat in a secondary raffle/food drive the place was running and then it was a hat that just says “Breakfast Stout” on the front with the Founder’s logo on the back. When do you even wear that? Totally weird. Donation was for a good cause so I don’t mind at all, but I sure would have taken one of the other prizes like earlier year CBS bottles :)
Instead of tapping into that, I picked up a single bottle of the New Holland Dragon’s Milk Banana Coconut that I was able to get in a build-your-own 6 pack. I was worried it would be too coconut for me so getting one was perfect since if I had to dump it it would only be a minor tragedy. I really like the taste to start, but then there’s a coconut finish that’s just a bit more than I like. If you like coconut then I bet it’s excellent. I will finish it but I am happy to only have one.
I was picking up milk at my local Jewels and bought an entire case of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.
Both awesome and a little bit more than I was planning on spending.
In homebrewing news, our Christmas beer is in the fermenter and will be drinkable sometime in mid-January.
This is the first time we’ve repeated a recipe (more or less; it’s all-grain this time and it was an extract recipe last year), and the first high-gravity beer we’ve done with the all-grain setup. As is expected, we lost some efficiency, but not very much, and we’re getting better and better at hitting our target numbers.
In the spring, we’re hoping to do something colonial-inspired, with molasses, a high proportion of brown malts, adjuncts, and spruce tips in place of most of the hops. That should be a fun one.
This happened thanks to my neighbors:
I looked after their house, which entailed bringing in the mail and whatnot during a recent trip they took over the holiday. He brought me back this. I had a glass of it during the recent movie podcast.
Damn it was good.A little light for my taste, but still really good.
-xtien
Man, Allagash makes fantastic beers. I’m betting it was awesome.
I went to an Allagash beer tasting dinner once and expected I had tasted most of them. Instead the rep had several of their one-off beers and holy hell were they good.
One I seem to be able to find more often than others is James Bean. A golden colored bourbon barrel aged beer with coffee. All the amazing flavors of a stout without a lot of the bitterness, it’s amazing.
