13 Nov 2009
These are my top ten favorite IPAs.
10. Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA
Weyerbacher might sound foreign, but it’s brewed in the heart of Pennsylvania. And while the bottle labels and website don’t leave much to be desired as far as design goes, the beers more than make up for it, especially the Double Simcoe IPA. This beer has an incredibly strong hoppiness that is crisp and clean and almost piney. With 9% ABV this is far from a session beer, but definitely one you should put on your list to try.
9. Terrapin Rye Squared
Terrapin Brewery here in Athens, Georgia is only seven years old, but old enough to become a regional favorite. In the first year of brewing their Rye Pale Ale received the gold medal and has since become their number one seller. Every year in February Terrapin releases the Rye Squared, which is double the hops and double the malts of the Rye Pale Ale. This hard-hitting and very hoppy brew is a testament to the breweries quest for quality. At 9.5% ABV the Terrapin Rye Square is “one and done”.
8. Bell’s HopSlam
Bell’s Brewery is in Galesburg, Michigan, but I first tried it quite a ways away in Orlando, Florida. Having never heard of Bell’s Brewery I was eager to try this 10% ABV beer noted for it’s extreme hoppiness and surprisingly low taste of alcohol. The first taste of this beer takes over your mouth, bathing your entire tongue in liquid hop glory. This beer is best enjoyed slow, taking in the complex characteristics of honey (sweet) and hops (bitter).
7. Fort Collins Rocky Mountain IPA
From Colorado comes the Rocky Mountain IPA with it’s almost overpowering hoppiness. While not an exciting beer as the hops overpower the flavor by far, I included this one in my top tens simply because of the sheer amount of hoppiness, which I love.
6. Stone IPA
Stone Brewing Co. is based in Escondido, California and produces two beers that landed within my top ten. The Stone IPA has a slightly above average hoppiness with a hint of citrusy lemon. It’s light, crisp, and flavorful and has a very nice balance of sweet malts and bitter hops. It makes a good session beer.
5. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Sierra Nevada is considered one of the oldest craft breweries in America. Founded in 1980 they’ve since increased volume and are one of the few national distributers of craft beers. The Pale Ale is a classic. It’s crisp and refreshing with a clean, piney taste and not too much hoppiness. It’s great for summer days and makes a great session beer.
4. Victory HopDevil
I first heard about Victory when I moved here to Athens, Georgia. Eager to try the new plethora of beers at local bars I was in search of new beers to enjoy. The HopDevil ranks well with both flavor and hoppiness and at 6.7% ABV will let you enjoy a few of them. With spicy undertones with a somewhat sweet finish, this beer has become one of my local favorites.
3. Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
Onto the scene again comes Sierra Nevada with their Torpedo Extra IPA and it’s bold, assertive hop character balanced with piney, crisp and refreshing flavor and medium body. While a year-round beer I sometimes have a hard time finding it on the shelves. Whether this is because it’s such a great beer and just sells out, or because it’s limited in this area I don’t know. But it’s a very welcome treat when I do find it. Excellent beer!
2. Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA
Dogfish Head is Delaware isn’t afraid to try something new, exciting, bold and sometimes dangerous. Going beyond traditional ingredients Dogfish Head includes berries, fruits, and other ingredients that bring life and a unique flavor to many of Dogfish Head’s brews. However, the one beer that tops all others for me is the 90 minute IPA. The term 90 minute refers to how long the hops are introduced into the boil, in this case for 90 minutes. The result is a bold hop character that is balanced by a sweet maltiness that’s a ltitle sweeter than other IPAs. At 9% ABV and with a full and somewhat heavy body, this heavy hitter is no session beer.
1. Stone Ruination IPA
The boys down in Escondito, California sure know how to brew. The bottle describes Ruination as “a liquid poem to the glory of the hop” and nothing could be truer. Smelling of citrusy lemons and aromatic flowers and with an incredibly balanced piney/bitter/sweet pallate, and with a bold, bitter hop character followed by a strong, sweet maltiness, this beer ranks in at my number one favorite IPA. And with only 7.7% ABV you can enjoy more than one.
Cheers!
Edit: An online friend created her very own list of top-tens. So, that’s 20 top IPAs for you to try :)
19 Aug 2009
I took a few moments this morning to read some blogs that I’ve been sadly neglecting and I realized that I hadn’t written anything in two weeks. So what’s been going on? I’ve been busy.
Three weeks ago I injured my ankle during a 14-mile run. The following week I laid low and caught up on some projects at home for a few clients while letting my foot rest. The next weekend I went to the mountains with Kevin and Melissa to get some practice in for the Blue Ridge Relay race in September. My foot still being injured I made a doctors appointment for the next week. X-rays didn’t show any damage and I was told that the muscles were overused and to give it more rest time. I continued to catch up on work from home. Training for our marathon officially began last Monday, but I’ve been taking it easy on my ankle to make sure I’m fresh for the team in just two and a half weeks. Last week, we brewed our third beer – a Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA clone – and we’ll be bottling it in just over a week. Very much looking forward to that. And this week, Melissa’s been in town hanging out and having fun. We’ve been enjoying the cuisine here in Athens, drinks, beer pong at local bars, and dancing (which was really more like undulating with the crowd of people).
So that’s what I’ve been up to in a nutshell.
I’ll probably write again soon, and it’ll probably be about our brew.
10 Jul 2009
Recently I started brewing beer with a couple of friends/beer enthusiasts here in town. Our first brew, an Arrogant Bastard clone, didn’t turn out so well – color was there, smell was there, even taste was pretty close – but we failed at the carbonation process. After bottling we immediately chilled it and wondered why, after a week and a half later it had no carbonation, when we should’ve let it sit at room temperature for the week or so first. We talked to a guy at our local brew store who said the yeast should revive itself if we pulled it out of the fridge and let it sit for another week or so. So that’s what we’ve done and hopefully all will be well. In the meantime, I’ve got three six packs and two bombers sitting on my kitchen counter.
Not to be put down we decided to keep going with it, learning from our mistakes, and so last night we began our second beer, a hefeweizen. We’re mimicking a Paulaner with a bit more fruitiness. The hops smelled incredible, almost like kiwis and bananas. We used the appropriate ammount of water this time, so it won’t be too watery and we’ll be sure and let it carbonate properly in two weeks when we bottle.
This was a really easy beer to make, supplies only costing $30. Only one type of hops and totalling only 2.15 ounces, and only nine pounds of grains/malt. We boiled last night and tossed in the yeast this morning. Two weeks should leave us with a tasty weizen. I can’t wait.
Up next is my choice – a Dogfish Head 90min IPA clone. It’ll be an expensive one, but being that it’ll be our third attempt, it should turn out pretty well. The 90min IPA is one of my favorite beers so having a fridge stuffed with it will certainly make me a happy camper for quite some time. And talk about a good beer, this thing calls for a total of 18.5 pounds of grains/malts and three different hops (Amarillo, Simcoe, and Warrior) totalling 5.15 oz. My mouth watered typing that.
For those of you who don’t quite follow, grains are used for aroma, color, and taste. Darker grains produce darker beers whereas lighter grains produce lighter beers. Malts (or grain sugars) are needed for alcohol production. The yeast will eat the sugars and convert them to alcohols. Hops add to flavor, but are mainly for aroma and bitterness. And in my opinion, the more hops the better.
Stay tuned!
07 Jul 2009
About one week ago we bottled our first home brew, an Arrogant Bastard clone and since then it’s been chilling (literally) in my fridge, eyeing me and teasing me each time I open it. I had to stick it in the back and hide it as best I could with the Schlitz “High Gravity” deuce and the remaining Leinenkugel’s from Melissa’s visit.
At the time of bottling we had purchased a bomber of the real Arrogant Bastard to compare color, smell, and taste. Taste, of course, can’t really be determined until after the carbonation process completes, which is about ten days from bottling.
That day is tomorrow and oh man, I can’t wait.
02 Jul 2009
For those of you who don’t yet know, my boss and I have decided to take on home brewing. He’s done it before, but this was my first time. Being a lover of beer, it’s definitely something I’d like to make a permanent hobby. It’s really not expensive. The only hard part is waiting for it to be ready.
Our first brew, we decided to make an Arrogant Bastard Ale clone. Stone Brewing company is one of my favorite craft breweries and always produces very nicely done beers, and the recipe we found really wasn’t that difficult so we decided to start there.
The whole process takes about 4 weeks. That’s from start to pop the cap and enjoy.
Begin with boiling the malt and water for a total of 90 minutes. Throw in hops at 30 minutes in, then again at 90 minutes in.
Much of the water will evaporate leaving a semi-thick sugary molasses behind.
At 90 minutes turn off the heat and toss in the remaining hops. Let sit and cool for about 30 minutes.
Once the mixture cools down enough to handle, you want to transfer it to the fermentation tank. In doing so, you must strain out the loose grains, hops and other impurities.
Once you get it into the fermentation tank and it cools to room temperature, you add the yeast. Yeast is temperature sensitive so it needs to be room temperature. The yeast will literally eat the sugars producing alcohol. This, along with the type of hops you choose and grains are what give the beer its flavor.
Let the yeast do it’s thing for about 14 days. You’ll know when it’s done because there’ll be all the sludge at the bottom of the tank and no more bubbling.
Two weeks later, fermentation has stopped and we’re left with our beer minus carbonation. We need to transfer the beer to another tank. In our case we had to syphon it to get the pour started.
Transferring beer to new tank.
Before the new tank of beer gets too full, you need to boil another cup of malt and add it to the new tank. These sugars will eventually carbonate the beer once bottled.
As the 5 gallons of beer is transferring we decided to rinse out the bottles which were sitting in sanitizing solution for an hour. We also sanitized the caps.
Our cleaned and empty bottles. We had collected about 70 of them.
Of course we had to sample it, even without carbonation. We got the color pretty good. We’re excited to taste the final product in about a week.
This was our inspiration. We bought a bottle to compare.
The final product!
This was a great experience and something I definitely enjoy doing and wish to continue. There’s definitely an art to it and it’s nice to be able to taste the fruits of your labor, even if it does take a month. The wait, I’m sure, will be worth it.
We’d be happy to ship bottles if you want to try it. We’ll be brewing once a month with new beers. Next up is a traditional German wheat similar to Paulaner.
More to come!