Episode 23: 120 Minute IPA – The Holly Grail for Hop Heads

Finally we reach the top of our IPA ladder, with the often imitated but never duplicated 120 Minute IPA.

News

Tonight’s news is yet another in a line of beer safety tips for the drinkers out there in the crowd. A New Hampshire woman will spend the next 15 to 30 years behind bars because she killed another woman over an argument about beer. Mind you both of the women were very intoxicated, but I am sure that the argument was worth the prison sentence.

120 Minute IPA

• Well here it is, 120 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware.
• As a quick recap though, Dogfish Head Brewery is one of the big players in the craft brewing industry, known very much for their extreme beers.
• Jim promised he would talk a little more about Randal The Enamel Animal, which is how true hop heads seem to like this beer, and we do on the podacst. You see, this contraption is hooked up to a draft or keg line and the beer runs through and over and around fresh dry hops, which apparently add even more hop flavor and taste.
• The vitals for this beer, well it weighs in at a whopping 21% ABV.
• Now as promised, I am going to be tasting this one live here, or well live as in recorded live. So for this one you’ll have to listen to get the tasting notes.

Next Week

Well that ends the IPA series for now. You never know, we may revisit this style later on, but as for now, we are moving on to the Octoberfest and fall seasonal beers. We have a pretty good lineup coming for the next several weeks, and even a little something special for Halloween at the end of October. Make sure to tune in next week when we talk about our favorite first step brewery, Sam Adams and its take on the style.

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Episode 22: Victory Hop Devil Ale – Well I’ll be damned

This week we look at Victory Hop Devil Ale. A more balanced, but just as good.

News

Why beer festivals should not be held at Zoos. In Serbia a man was found dead and naked in a bear cage following a beer festival at the Zoo. Nuff said.

If you want to go to a more tame festival, Jake will be at the Maryland Microbrewery festival on September 29th. If you’re going to be there let us know in the comments.

Hop Devil Ale

• Tonights offering to the beer Gods comes from Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, which is a little bit west of Philadelphia.
• The brewery is actually a rather new brewery, just passing the ten year old mark last year. So if you can do the math, that means it opened in 1996. The building actually used to be an old Peppridge Farm Factory.
• You can get this beer on both coasts and a fair number of states in the middle of country as well. Yeah, I am just too lazy to read all of the states. In addition, if you go to the Victory website, there is a place where you can buy it online.
• Hop Devil Ale weighs in at around 6.70% ABV, which although it isn’t as strong as last weeks beer, it is still pretty powerful.
• One of the first things you notice about this beer is the label. What Victory has done is taken a hop, which is a pine cone like object, and strapped devils horns, chin, and other devil like features on it.
• The taste is actually pretty balanced in my opinion. Now don’t get me wrong, you most certainly know that this beer has hops in it, with that bitterness, but there isn’t nearly as much citrus flavor coming through.
• I think that this is a great IPA to introduce people too. Not only does it have many of the strong characteristics of a good IPA, but it also has a little bit of malt sweetness that may help get new craft beer drinkers to come to the table.

Our Next Show

Next weeks show is going to be the peak of the IPA style series, with a ridiculously hoppy beer, Dogfish Head 120 Minute. Jim plans on actually tasting this on air.

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Episode 21: Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA – This one’s just right

After a week off, this week we look at 90 Minute, what many consider to be the best IPA in the country.

News

A few pieces of sad news this week from the beer world. Steve Harrison, the Vice President of Sierra Nevada died in an apparent boating accident between. And just last Thursday, on August 30th, Michael Jackson, the Beer Hunter, passed away from a heart attack. Jackson was widely considered the best beer mind in the world. He has published several books, had a TV show at one point. So we raise our glass to them this week.

90 Minute IPA

• Dogfish Head Brewing, is one of the most widely distributed craft breweries in the country. Located in Milton Delaware and owned by Sam Caligone, considered to be one of the rockstars of the brewing industry.
• Dogfish Head, which is named after a small shark (which is on the bottle and the logo of the company) is known for making experimental and extreme beers. The brewers are always trying something different, be it using tons of raspberries in their beer, brewing from ancient recipes, or using tons of hops.
• Tonight’s beer, 90 Minute IPA, is the middle beer of the IPA beers that they put out, and let me explain what I mean by middle beer. There is also a 60 Minute, and a 120 Minute (which we will talk about in two weeks).
• The 90 Minute, weighs in at around 9% ABV, which is pretty strong for a beer. In fact this is a beer that you may have two but probably not too many more in a night. If you want to drink more of them, give the 60 Minute a shot.
• The 90 however comes forward with hops, hops, and hops. You are going to get all kinds of piney, citrusy, flavors out of this one. And this is going to be a lot more bitter than most people are used to, so take that as a warning.
• The balance here is ok, but I think the hops do over power the malt and sweetness. That being said, this is one of my favorite IPA’s. If you get a chance to get one, but feel kind of intimated at first, try the 60 and then move up. If you feel like going for it, enjoy!

Next Week

We look at Victory Brewing Company’s Hop Devil Alewe get even hoppier, so hop heads rejoice!

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Episode 19: Samuel Smith India Ale – A spot of beer

We continue on to the second beer in our IPA series. We head back to the roots of the style and merry old England with Samuel Smith’s India Ale.

News

This isn’t really news that deals with beer they way that most of our news deals with beer, but it is still an amusing story none the less. It appears that a beer can found at a buglary scene two years ago has enough DNA on it to charge someone with robbing the place for $30,000 worth of stuff. So, be careful where you throw your empties…and oh yeah, don’t steal.

Samuel Smith India Ale

• Samuel Smiths is brewed in the town of Tadcaster, which is a small Yorkshire town located between Leeds and York.
• The brewery was founded in 1758 and bought in 1847 by the Smiths (no not related to the cohost). Apparently there has been some sibling rivalry over the years, some Smith brothers opened up rival breweries. I have read from varying sources that it is either now owned by Coors, or is still independent. If anyone can shed some light on that, we always welcome the knowledge in the comments.
• A little side note about this beer the material that the fermentors is made from is not the typical copper, stainless steel or even oak. It’s Welsh Slate.
• Samuel Smith’s India Ale weighs in at 5.0%. I didn’t really have a tough time finding this one, and have seen various Samuel Smith products around, but I am not sure of the distribution.
• When you pour this it looks a little bit darker than you would think an IPA should look. But don’t worry, it isn’t a Guiness. The head is actually has a bit of a copper color.
• The first thing you notice is the smell, it is nothing like what we talked about last week, instead it is a much more bready aroma. The taste is different as well. You can tell there are hops in it, but the malt is much stronger.

Next Week

Well we are done with England and are going to be heading back to the America’s next week, and in particular we are heading back to Delaware and the first Dogfish head of the series, 90 minute IPA.

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Episode 18: Pyramid Thunderhead IPA – Walk like an Egyptian

This week we start our India Pale Ale or IPA series with Thunderhead IPA from Pyramid Brewing Company.

News

A little labeling news this week. Apparently, the TTB, which is the Federal agency that regulates alcohol products, is proposing some new labeling requirements for said alcoholic beverages. The new rules will require alcohol to be labeled with nutritional analysis and things like serving facts labels, like you would typically see on the back of a Pepsi. Now the rub here is, this has kind of been in the rule making process for a couple years, so who knows how long it will take to become a regulation or if it ever actually does, but who know you could soon see that familiar little square on your beer as well as your bag of Fritos.

IPA – What do those letter means?

• When we talk about IPA’s we are talking about India Pale Ales. But, Jim, you may ask, these beers aren’t from India, why are you calling them India Pale Ales? Good question thoughtful listener, good question. You see, IPA’s originally came from Great Britain, like a lot of other Ale style beers.
• You see, around the 1790’s, Great Britain was pretty much ran India and longed for the great taste of a British beer to go along with their domination. However, brewing in India was tough because it was too hot, the water supplies sucked, and basic ingredients were not available. Oh what is an Englishman to do.
• They couldn’t ship the beer because the trip would take 4 months and before refrigeration and modern techniques, it was tough to keep the beer fresh. And by tough I mean impossible. It ended up tasting like crap when it got there.
• So, what could they do. Well they just added more hops. See, hops work as a preservative, and the beer when it got to India tasted fairly normal because of the large amounts of hops added.

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

• Pyramid Brewing Company, which you may remember us mention briefly from one of the hefewiezen shows, is based out of Seatle Washington, and has fairly good distribution, so you should be able to get this stuff pretty much anywhere. Founded in 1984 as Hart Brewing Company in Kalama, Washington, the company has gone through several changes since that time, including buying Thomas Kemper Brewing of Poulsbo in 1992 and changing its name to Pyramid in 1996.
• The brewery makes a bunch of good beers including a hefewiezen as mentioned and an apricot beer which actually isn’t too bad either.
• This beer however is a little bit different from an apricot beer. Thunderhead IPA weighs in at 6.7% abv and is a fairly hoppy IPA.
• This guy pours a copper color and doesn’t really have too much of a head, or at least not when I poured it. You can’t really smell hops like you could in some of the APA’s the last few weeks, its actually a pretty mild aroma.
• The taste however is not a mild APA taste. You get hit with that bitter and hops pretty quickly. Now this is not the hoppiest beer out there, but it is most certainly something that may take a little getting used to. The malt does add a little sweetness if you roll it around in your mouth like you do a good wine (yes you can do that with beer too) but the hops are really what brings this beer to life.

Our next show

Next weeks show we will be hopping the pond again to England and the origin of the IPA with Fullers IPA. This will be the next step up the ladder as we take a deeper look at the origin of the species.

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