The Hopster plays true to her namesake: IPA Tasting Wrap-Up

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This past Sunday was the 4^th monthly installment of what I’ve started calling the Thirsty Hopster Tasting Series.  It’s an idiosyncratic ramble through the variety of beer styles, heavily weighted towards those I like best myself because, well, if I’m going to put these on, I’m not going to waste any time on styles I’m not that fond of.  This Sunday was no exception, with Un-Ordinary IPAs as the theme.  Or rather, that was the intent, but given that so many unusual IPAs (e.g. Black IPAs) are usually only available as special release on tap at breweries, my selection was somewhat limited by what was available in bottles. 

 

Note to self: once these get bigger, maybe we can start getting kegs (save money, save the environment, save my knees from 800 trips up and down the stairs with crates of bottles…)

As with last time, this tasting couldn’t have happened without the help of some very dedicated beer drinkers and purveyors:

• Rami at Healthy Spirits for going above and beyond the call of beer selling duty (right down to driving me home with my loot, saving me a Zipcar rental). 


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• Michael Condie for bringing the big blue awning (if only there had been enough sun to make an awning necessary…) and tables, and tirelessly helping to pour and carry
• Diana Arsham, Paul Doyle, Prameet Jamnadas, and Ethan Levy for their brute strength (moving all those bottles out the park without a hand truck: tedious)
• Rich Yazbeck, Ivan Hopkinson, and Michael Condie again for taking all the pictures below
• All of the tasting attendees for braving the kind of weather that explains the oft-repeated “the coldest winter I ever spent was a San Francisco summer” refrain.    

We had just one tasting session this time for the 28 attendees, since the park offered a lot more space than my apartment for spreading out. 

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1. Drake’s IPA (English-style IPA)
2. Firestone Union Jack (English-style IPA)
3. Stone IPA (American-style IPA)
4. Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye (Rye IPA)
5. Deschutes Hop Trip (Fresh Hop PA)
6. Urthel Hop It (Belgian-style IPA)
7. Allagash Hugh Malone (Belgian-style IPA)
8. Green Flash Imperial IPA (Imperial IPA)
9. Moylan’s Hopsickle (Imperial IPA)
10. Hair of the Dog Blue Dot (Rye Imperial IPA)
11. Dogfish Head 90 Minute (extra-malty Imperial IPA)
12. Stone Arrogant Bastard (unique and much contested - I maintain this is more of an extra-malty Imperial IPA than anything else, but before you all write in to tell me I’m wrong and that it’s not, just know that I will want to hear what you think it is instead)

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This tasting was especially fun given that so many of the attendees came from you all - the until-now anonymous blog readers. It was a little overwhelming to show up and realize that I only knew about half the faces.  It was nice to meet other bloggers (like Joe from Beer at Joe’s), enthusiasts (like David, Michael & Mike) and homebrewers (like Austin and Neal).  In fact, I think by the end of the night, fueled by the hops, we had resolved to join a homebrew club or set up our own, pending inspiration with a clever, punny name (Fog City Fermentationists? Alcatraz Alesmiths? This might take some more thought). 

If you’re interested in joining a homebrew club, email me at thethirstyhopster@gmail.com, and I’ll add you to the list of people discussing the topic.

As for the tasting itself, I think we got some good conversation going, and even some input from some of the first-time attendees. 

The Classics: Drake’s IPA, Firestone Union Jack, and Stone IPA

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The defining characteristic of the IPA style as a whole is assertive hoppiness.  What American and British IPAs have in common are low or no fruitiness, moderate to low caramel or toasty malt flavor, and lots and lots of hop aromas and flavor (compared to plain ole Pale Ales).    However, there are significant differences between them, the main ones being:

• English IPAs have different hop flavors (more often earthy or fruity) than American IPAs (more often citrusy or piney) as a result of the difference chemicals in English vs. North American hop varieties.


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• English IPAs have lower hop bitterness that will be moderate to high, while American IPAS will have high to very high bitterness
• English IPAs have a more prominent malt flavor (moderate levels of bready, biscuit, toast, toffee, or caramel flavors) while American IPAs have less prominent malt flavors that are often more neutral (just sweet) with milder caramel or toast notes
• English IPAs are more likely to have a fruity character that comes from the esters produced in fermentation or English hops, while American IPAs will have little or no distinguishable fruit character in their aroma and flavor beyond the classic citrus flavor of American hops
• English IPAs are more likely to have a mineral flavor as a result of brewing with water high in sulfates
• English IPAs generally have a slightly heavier body as a result of their greater emphasis of malt

The Odd-balls: Bear Republic Hot Rod Rye and Deschutes Hop Trip

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These beers each demonstrate a variation on the classic American IPA.  The Hop Rod Rye is (as you might have guessed) a Rye IPA, which means that some portion of the grain used to make this beer is rye, instead of the usual barley.  In this case, it’s 20% rye.  I really wanted to get the He’Brew Lenny’s RIPA, which is a rye imperial IPA, and then serve the Hop Rod, the Lenny’s and the Hair of the Dog Blue Dot (another RIIPA) together.  Unfortunately, Lenny’s was nowhere to be found, so I served the Blue Dot with the other IIPAs and the Hop Rod on its own.  The whole RIPA style is one that I’m very interested in right now, and trying to get my hand on, whenever I can, though Hop Rod is my usual go-to rye beer.  It stood strong once again, easily following the Stone IPA’s hop bitterness (no easy feat there) and adding a touch of sweetness and a little zing of rye spice.     

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Now, I think we were disappointed in part because this was actually a Pale Ale, not an IPA, which I didn’t realize until this morning (somehow I managed to overlook this in all my preparation for the event).  After four actual hop-packed IPAs, most Pas would probably pale in comparison (pun entirely intentional).  However, I am almost certain there was another problem, and this is what I had tried to warn the group about: the beer was 6 - 9 months old (given that it is released between October and December).  Fresh hop ales can only be made during the hop harvest, which arrives in September for the Yakima Valley in Washington, which grows ~20% of the world’s supply of hops, and most of the North American hop varieties used in American style beers.  The whole point of a fresh hop ale is to drink it, well, fresh.  I knew going into this that it was a little silly to be buying an American fresh hop ale in June, but it was the only option aside from the Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale, which actually is in season now, since the New Zealand hop harvest occurs in the spring.  In retrospect, I should have gone with the Southern Hemisphere, still just a PA not an IPA, but at least it would have been fresh. 

The Belgians: Urthel Hop It and Allagash Hugh Malone

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I have to admit it, I guess I’ve been totally converted from a hophead to a Belgophile, but these two were my favorites of the day.  They are just so different from the others — there was no mistaking those delicious, fruity, spicy Belgian ester flavors and aromas. 

As one might expect, the Hugh Malone was the hoppier of the two, being an American-made Belgian Style.  It had classic American hop flavors (grapefruit, pine) layered in with the spice/pepper/alcohol punch typical of a Belgian Strong Golden Ale.  I loved the way the hops played off the Belgian-type flavors. 

The Urthel had a noticeably more earthy tone, and sure enough it’s made with all continental hops.  I imagine this is what licking a noble hop, on the vine, tastes like.  I liked the integration of the hop and yeast flavors in this beer a lot, it was very smooth, with all of the elements playing nicely together.

I can’t pick a favorite between the two — they’re certainly different enough to enjoy each in its own right for what it offers that the other does not.  And this is what I love about beer: you can burrow down into a small, emerging sub-style and yet still no two beers taste the same.

The Imperials: Green Flash IIPA, Moylan’s Hopsickle, Hair of the Dog Blue Dot, Dogfish Head 90 Minute, and Stone Arrogant Bastard

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We opened all five of them together and lined them up.  This caused a bit of a mess because all of the bottles of Blue Dot were gushers.  Each one foamed up and exploded and kept going until we had poured about half the bottle into cups. 

I know it’s a refrain I’ve repeated over and over before, but I liked the 90 Minutes the best.  I’m a little disappointed even, because I like being surprised, changing my mind, and finding new favorites.  However, to my mind, the malt balance to that IIPA is perfection and can’t be touched.  I’d call it super-caramel-y, and Gail calls it nutty (which it is, on oh so many levels…). In comparison, both the Hopsickle and Green Flash tasted very green.  I don’t know if green is a flavor, but when I taste the grass/leaves/pine flavors and the grapefruit/lemon flavors of an IIPA that doesn’t have super-strong malt character, it starts to remind me of furniture polish.  These weren’t furniture polish beers, I reserve that moniker for bad IIPAs of this sort, and these two are some of the best (that’s why I picked them).  However, when I taste them alongside a 90 Minute, my perception of them started to lean in the furniture polish direction.  And I did hear some rumblings from the crowd that the Green Flash IIPA doesn’t stand up to their West Coast IPA. 

Before I go too far down this route though, I should clarify that sometimes herbaceous citrus green flavor is exactly what I want in an IIPA.  When that’s the case, I go to Toronado for a pint of Russian River Pliny the Elder.  That is my favorite green-tasting IIPA, but it won’t be available in bottles until next month.  Maybe I should have waited - but I’m impatient.  Who wants to wait an extra month for beer? 

Next Tasting Session:

I have a sad announcement/admission to make here.  After four straight monthly beer tastings, the tasting series will be going on hiatus for a month, as I take a mini-sabbatical (potentially permanent?) from my day job in management consulting.  So, there will be no July tasting, but the Thirsty Hopster will be returning with a vengeance in August.  I may even do two in August in order to make up for July. 

David Mendlowitz had a great idea for a tasting, which was to do at least part of it BYOB.  I’d announce the style ahead of time, put my list out there so people know what not to duplicate, and ask them to bring a pick of their choice.  There would likely be no tasting fees (since each person would be bringing beer) and it would make the whole experience more collaborative.  David’s specific idea was to run something like this with aged/cellared strong beers.  I like where his head is at, but considering that (A) the only beers I’m aging are the Russian River barrel beers and they’ve only been aging for a few months, and (B) I’ve already served the Supplication and Beatification at one of my tastings before, I don’t think I’d be a very good contributor to this theme, and I can’t in good conscience drink everyone else’s cellared beers without having some of my own to through in.  So… the point of that run on sentence was to say yes, I’ll probably run with that general idea; yes, I’d like to have an aged beer tasting at some point; no, I don’t think I’ll be doing aged beers in August. 

The other possibility is a on-site tasting (The Thirsty Hopster takes a field trip!) at The Trappist, most likely on a Sunday afternoon.  I’m headed over there this evening to discuss this possibility (ok, and maybe have a few Belgians), so I’ll keep you all posted.