SMARTMOUTH: STUPID GOOD DOUBLE IPA

Smartmouth Notch 9 Double India Pale Ale   Abv 9.1    IBUs  88

This week we’re featuring some of our best Double IPAs of the 600 or so we have tasted since 2002.   We’re pleased that a local entry not only cracked that barrier, but ranked in the top  1% of beers we’ve ever tasted. The brewery’s slogan is Smartmouth-Stupid Good and it surely fits well here.  There is a caveat, however.        We tasted this beer during Mad Fox’s Hoppy Oktoberfest last fall (which is a wonderful event if you want to find new hoppy beers).  I’d like to think we were not impaired, but there is no doubt we were enthusiastic.  Even if Notch 9 might have received a bit of a boost, however, we’re certain we’d enjoy it in any context; this bronze medal winner at the GABF is an exceptionally well made beer.

Our sense is that Smartmouth beers have been getting better and better in the past few years.   If we lived in Norfolk, we’d have a more authoritative view, but there’s no doubt this this is from a brewery that knows what it’s doing.

Tasting notes:  A rich and creamy malt provides a strong foundation for the towering hops.  Herbal, soft citrus, plenty of pine and earth, but it all plays well together.   Grassy and BIG as it drinks.  All those hop tastes could create chaos, but somehow they combine

     Food Pairings:  The brewery’s advice is to pair it with “a plate of cured meats or bacon to boost the umami and saltiness of the dish. Pair it with a funky cheese like Stilton or sharp cheddar.”  Good advice, much in keeping with most of the guides we’ve read.  Beer Review # 0103    20170412

THROUGH SATURDAY APRIL 15 WE’LL FEATURE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE DOUBLE IPAs OF ALL TIME.

 

HOPS RUN RIOT IN PORT CITY’S MANIACAL DOUBLE IPA

Maniacal IPA, Port City, Alexandria, Va. Double India Pale Ale  Abv  8.5     IBUs  85

We tasted our first Double or Imperial IPA in 2000 in California.  We found two or three more each year through 2003, then in 2004 the style seemed to really catch on and we found between two and four dozen each year until 2014 when that number approached 100 a year.   It shows few signs of slowing down; we’re well over a couple of dozen already this year.

Double IPAs are … what the brewer says they are.   There’s a fine line between a double IPA and a hoppy barely wine and, really, a finer line between a strong, but not unusual American IPA and a double IPA.   Of the 600 or so we’ve tasted, a very small handful had perceptible, but understated hops.   The overwhelming majority had hop levels high enough to have an impact on your ability to “drive or operate machinery.”

             Double IPAs are probably the easiest beers to make – not the cheapest, but really hard to mess up.   Massive hops retard infections and cover all kinds of temperature issues and other mistakes.  That said, really good double IPAs, like Port City’s Maniacal, are as challenging as most other ale styles.   The beer doesn’t have to be “balanced” in flavor—a hop forward taste is expected– but it isn’t easy to make any excess in brewing taste good without some sort of balance between the body and the bitterness.   Head brewer Jonathan Reeves has been in the business a long time and if he’s made a mistake lately, we haven’t tasted it.   He uses a neat trick for making even strong beers palatable – balancing abv and IBU – in this case 8.5 abv and 85 IBUs.   Many Double IPAs have hops that far exceed the body and while they can be excellent textbooks for learning the flavor of the dominant hop, they’re also usually “one and done” for most beer drinkers.   The brewery is proud of its patented “Hopzooka”, a device for adding hops to fermenting beer without injecting oxygen as well.   We think that may help in creating this very hoppy, but fundamentally tasty beer.

Tasting notes:  A chewy pale malt takes a bow before the hops run riot and chase it off the stage.  The malt returns to peek through the curtains at times, but the hops never quit frolicking.  Hops provide plenty of sweet citrus with notes of grapefruit and blood orange, but it all hangs together quite well by the time a long huge bitter kicks in during the aftertaste.   Ellie doesn’t always rate double IPAs very highly, but she really liked the meld of hop, malt and booze on this one.

Food Pairings:  Randy Mosher, of the Brewers’ Association, argues for smoked brisket or grilled lamb, although we think the lamb would be overwhelmed by the ale’s intense flavors.   An Iberico ham, or, if you haven’t won a lottery lately, a good salty Virginia ham is a good flavor pair.  Our only reservation is that the salt makes you want to drink more than you should of the beer.   There’s no doubt, though, that a very strong flavored cheese or even a good sharp cheddar would smooth the rougher edges of the hops even while the big bodied beer softens the edge of the cheese.  Beer Review # 0102    20170411

THROUGH SATURDAY APRIL 22 WE’LL FEATURE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE DOUBLE IPAs OF ALL TIME.

CABOOSE CRAZY TRAIN TRIPEL IS A FINE ROAD TO RIDE

Crazy Train Tripel, Caboose Brewery, Vienna, Virginia, Abv  8.2

Chris Mallon has brewed at big regional breweries, but jumped on board Caboose from the start with full creative control.  He’s an exceptionally good brewer, careful with the science, and brilliantly intuitive in formulation.   Caboose had about a dozen and a half beers on tap when we visited a few weeks ago and just about every one of them showed Chris’s skill.   We remember in the last “wave” of breweries and brewpubs in the 90s, that it was pretty common for a small brewery to do one or two styles well, but rare to have success with a wide range.

These days, good brewers are more commonly doing almost everything well.  That variety makes for a great evening of exploring beers at the source without leaving your seat.

And thank Uber, you can still make it home.

Several of Chris’s creation made it into our top 25% this year, but we’ve chosen the Tripel because that’s one of the hardest styles to brew successfully.  Many of the Belgian attempts at the balance of sweetness, dryness, and fruit fell well short of the mark, and Americans by and large do even worse.   Chris’s version is just a bit heavy for the style and has some less than traditional flavor components, but the overall effect is pretty close to the target and not many American tripels get there.

Tasting notes:  A rich pale malt holds lots of pepper, melon and some sweet tropical fruit with a bit of finishing banana.  The early pepper and ending fruit makes it seem like a distant cousin of a Hefe Weizen, though much deeper and more complex. A bit of metal throughout is very typical of the style.

             Food Pairings:  Tripels go well with fish dishes – this one is spicy enough to last the meal, get gentle enough not to overwhelm the flavor of the fish.   As is true for most big beers, it would make a fine accompaniment to a cheese board at the end of the meal.  Beer Review # 0101    20170410

TOMORROW WE’LL FEATURE MANIACAL IPA, A DOUBLE IPA FROM PORT CITY

 

 

 

OK, IT’S TRITE TO SAY, BUT ALSIN’S ASTRO ZOMBIE REALLY IS OUT OF THIS WORLD

Astro Zombie, Aslin, Herndon, Virginia, IPA Abv  6.7

We slipped into a scholarly interest in beer by collecting cans starting in 1970.  My brother was too young to drink, but wanted to collect cans, so it was my job to find them and empty them for him.   He is my brother after all, it was the least I could do.   It seemed like a good idea to keep one of each new brand for ourselves, and from there a pretty quick slide into beer obsession.  We started attending the Blue and Gray Beer Show decades ago when it was held in possibly the worst chain hotel in the state of Virginia and have been with them as they’ve gone upscale into the Dulles Hilton.   In the early days we were just there to trade cans, along the way we’ve been the featured speaker at their banquet and have focused much more on the beers in the hospitality room than on the cans in the rooms.

But this year we stumbled onto a can release from Voodoo Brewing in Pennsylvania and since Voodoo had become something of a Keystone State Alchemist, we thought they’d have some sort of trading value.   They did.   The Voodoo cans lasted only a few hours and allowed us to trade for local hard to find beers from up and down the east coast.   But a few of the treasures were from a small local brewery – one of the way-too-many local breweries that we haven’t been able to find the time to visit.

              Aslin, a tiny brewery in Herndon, Virginia, brews cult-status beers that bring lines of people to the brewery to try to obtain limited releases.  They don’t have a tap room and when they sell out the day’s allocated beers, they close. One of the can collectors who really wanted our range of Voodoo cans had braved the elements in a lengthy line to acquire his allotment of cans.  The four that we were able to obtain from him ranged from quite drinkable to spectacular.  The Astro Zombie was the best of the bunch. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to find it on any given day, but from our somewhat limited sample, we’d guess whatever they’re offering will be really good.

If you want to try Aslin beers, check their website or Twitter for hours and availability.   The brewery recommends you check social media to get an idea of what to expect when you get there.

Tasting notes:  It’s a murky gold that’s no problem if you, like most of us, have been practically bathing in New England style ales lately. It’s fruitier than it is dank.  A huge range of fruits fills the palate from the start with soft citrus, lime and even a hint banana before more tropical fruits grow as it warms.  The breadth of flavor is simply remarkable.

Food Pairings:  You’re going to be taking this home with you – there’s no tap room and they don’t sell to restaurants or bars.  Pair it up with what you like to cook – it’s hard to go wrong, actually.

But if you’re there for the late afternoon/early evening hours in the summer consider a growler of one of their hoppy wonders with a picnic.  If you take even half-hearted measures to keep it from being obvious you’re pouring beer, any of the parks in the area would be perfect.  Hoppy beers seem to taste better outdoors.      Beer Review # 0100    20170407

NEXT UP: (Monday April 10) CABOOSE CRAZY TRAIN TRIPEL FROM VIENNA, VIRGINIA

 

 

 

 

LIVING—AND DRINKING—HISTORY IN BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT

Hanley Porter, Brewport Brewpub, Bridgeport, Ct.  Abv   6.0

We’re faced with a tough choice every Presidents Day weekend.   Max’s in Baltimore puts on perhaps the best Belgian beer selection in the United States and the Blue and Gray Beer show in Virginia brings together great beers with friends and brewers we see almost nowhere else.   We always wind up choosing the latter and rarely regret the decision.  This year’s event took over two floors of the Hilton Hotel near Dulles Airport and in addition to a couple of nearly non-stop hospitality rooms, featured room-to-room trading, drinking, and story swapping.

              One of the highlights is meeting up with Jeff Browning, a Connecticut brewer who has become a fixture at this gathering.  For years he was the creative force behind the beers at The Brü Rm. at BAR in New Haven, but has moved on to his own place in Bridgeport.  He came across a treasure trove of several Connecticut Breweries’ 18^th 19^th century beer recipes a few years and is now reviving them with the help of Dr. Terry Foster, a chemist and life-long beer scholar.  His Hanley Porter, rich and creamy with lots of chocolate roast flavor, was one of the best of the hospitality room offerings this year.

The Hanley Porter recipe originated in Ireland in the 19^th century and made its way to the Hanley brewery in Providence, R. I.  Browning says this about the brewing process:  Our brew had OG 15ºP, 6.0% ABV, 70 IBU (English Challenger hops – they didn’t grow hops in Ireland!). Black malt was the only roast malt produced at that time so we use only pale and black in our brewing with a few additional secret ingredients.

If you’re headed to or through New England, Brewport justifies a detour through Bridgeport.  Nine house beers and well over a dozen guest taps give you lots of choice to match with the pizza from their 10,000 pound gas fired brick oven.

Tasting notes:  A dark brown robust porter.  Very rich and creamy with a chocolate ice cream finish and some bitter chocolate in the aftertaste.  Some lactose notes last into the aftertaste.

Food Pairings:  While it doesn’t have the big alcoholic strength of many dessert beers, it’s big enough in flavor to complement a dessert course.  And, of course, if you’re at the brewery— pizza.  Beer Review # 0099    20170405

NEXT UP (APRIL 7)  WE’LL FEATURE ANOTHER BEER WE FOUND AT BLUE AND GRAY: ASLIN’S ASTRO ZOMBIE