live tasting!

here for your reading pleasure is my real time reviews of Swans Extra IPA and Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial Ale.

didn’t have a great day today, so its a two beer review this time folks!  and two heavy hitters!  the extra ipa is 6.8% and the moylan’s is 9.2%.  forget what ails you!

swans was incredibly carbonated and heady.  unfiltered, so kinda cloudy.  had kind of a belgian lager taste to it to me… you know, on the sour yeasty side…  definitely not my favourite flavour… so not my new favourite ipa.  would i drink it again if you bought it for me?  for sure.  would i drink it instead of coors light – doubly for sure.  will i buy another big bottle for myself?  doubtful.

i find the hopsickle a little on the malty side… drinkable for sure, but one the malty side for me.  good head, some lace remaining… live yeast, so its a bit sedimenty and cloudy.  the alcohol is nicely tempered though, it just feels a little warmer going down than your average beer.  the further we get into it, the more bitter it becomes.  and not a good hoppy bitter.  as bridget says, “just f’ing bitter”.

would i drink more of it?  if you’re buying, sure.  if i’m buying…. not so much.  there are plenty of other ipas out there that have won my heart, or least my liver.

i am feeling the percentages, so i’m too lazy to fetch photos, or check websites.  what you get is what’s on the bottle.  (july 8th update:  look, i found a couple of pics!!)

swans is not so forthcoming:  “Unfiltered Beer, some sedimentation may occur.  Keep refrigerated.  Please Recycle.”

moylan’s is a bit more generous:  “This is a “Hop” tribute, worthy of a King’s Imperial Court!  Enjoy the blast of fresh Tomahawk, Chinook and Anthanum Hops as they stimulate the taste buds in a truly Imperial Fashion.  Pucker Up!”

not our best choices… but good to cross off the list!  i’m all about lists…

Southern Tier’s Unearthly Imperial IPA

ah the Southern Tier Unearthly
’tis one of my favourites – and offers “an uninhibited infusion of hops”
which is good – i like hops!

i’m not sure if its the 11%, the 23 degrees plato, the red wheat or the triple hopping with chinook & cascade hops in the kettle, styrian golding hops back, topped with cascade, centenial and chinook dry hops that makes it so darned tasty, but whatever it is, i’m quite the big fan!  (and don’t tell anyone, but i like to put on my best jersey accent when i say that its from new york, not that i know whether lakewood is anywhere near jersey or not – why let trifles like that stand in the way of an accent opportunity?)

this is a beer that i can have just one 650 mL bottle of over the course of an evening and feel perfectly satisfied on any old night, or require several rounds of to quench my hops hunger some other random night, but guaranteed i’ll be a hoppy camper either way it turns out!  one night it will just be easier to remain vertical than the other.  tom-a-to, tom-ah-to as they probably say in lakewood, new york.

the bottle says:

“At the Southern Tier Brewing company, vigorously hopped beer is our standard and inspiration.

We continue a commitment to innovation with our most aggressive offering yet.  Unearthly is a manifestation of the brewer’s craft; skilfully balancing art and the forces of nature to produce a divine liquid.  Delicately pour a taste into a fluted glass.  Smell the enchanting aromas of the hops waft forward as your fist sip divulges this beer’s fervent soul.  To underestimate Unearthly is to trifle with the mysteries of the universe, so please consume wisely.”

truer word have never been spoken, in vino or otherwise.

i am intrigued to try this other unearthly version of special and limited availablity, but despair of it ever arriving locally.  mind you, i’ve not yet scoured the entirety of vancouver and environs for it… i do have other things i need to do in a day you know.

gemini Imperial Blended Ale: blended unearthly & unfiltered hoppe:

High in the winter sky, two parallel stick figures are visible & known as “the twins,” or the constellation Gemini. The astronauts of the 1960s flew as teams of two in a program named after the celestial pairing. At Southern Tier, we have our own fraternal twins, Hoppe & Unearthly. Blended together & placed in this vessel, the mission of our Gemini is to travel high & take passengers on a journey far into the heavens. so, to sum up, i am a big fan; this is one of my favourite ipas. you know, just in case you missed that in your reading so far.  yummy.  like it lots.  might marry it.  worry about the children, but might just do it any way. http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=becksbeerblog-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B000069HZ2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=becksbeerblog-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1933164093&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=becksbeerblog-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0014061AI&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

BrewDog’s Hardcore IPA

i’m currently swilling BrewDog’s Hardcore IPA. at 9% i think i might have a lot of fun at the grocery store in half an hour. better write a list…  oops too late, better to have written that list earlier.

label didn’t grab me quite as much as the punk ipa, not enough contrast is hard for these old eyes to read – love the general brewdog label theme though, and not ashamed to admit label grab is a large part of my beer purchasing checklist

called an explicit imperial ale, i’d argue its an imperious ale. definite toffee notes after the first sip, lovely aroma, still hazy after half an hour (again, what do you expect from a beer with no preservatives and no additives – a little haze ain’t such a bad thing!), has me licking my chops and slavering for more.

what the label says: “This imperial Indian Pale Ale Rocks… Hardcore! But don’t feel obliged to take our word for it, this little bottle has a grandiloquent story to tell. 2,204 malted Maris Otter grains gave all they had to offer the world to provide the robustly delicate toffee malt canvas for the ensuing epic. 4 Hop Cones willingly sacrificed themselves in fiery cauldron that is our brew kettle to ensure your mouth is left feeling punished and puckering for more. 9,900,000,000 yeast cells frantically fermented their little hearts out as the sugars were magically turned into alcohol in the dark depths of our fermentation tanks. 2 humans and 1 canine companion are relatively happy with the results.” Overall winners at the Grampian Food Forum Innovation Awards 2007
BrewDog: Beer with Bite… grrr!

specs:

ABV: 9%
OG: 1085
IBU’s: 150
Malts: Marris Otter Extra Pale Malt
Hops: Simcoe, Chinook, Amarillo, Warrior
This explicit ale has more hops and bitterness than any other beer brewed in the UK.  This is an extreme beer rollercoaster for freaks, gypsies and international chess superstars.