Mike Loves Beer

Name – Industrial India Pale Ale
Country – United States
Type – American Double IPA

All I’m going to say about sports right now is just this.  At least the Flyers are undefeated.  Now onto beer.

Total Wine has been bringing in a ton of breweries lately for their exclusive brewery directs.  In the past year we’ve seen Flying Fish, Laughing Dog, Clown Shoes and many others hitting the shelves down here.  Well Diamond Knot is another of these and they arrive late last year from Washington state.

When they first arrived my good friend Ed Roberts from Total Wine brought some of their stuff by for a recording of United We Drink (cheap plug).  I remembered liking some of them but haven’t gotten around to giving a proper review for any of them.  Well that all finally changes today as I review their Industrial India Pale Ale.

I popped the cap of the 22 oz bomber and pour it into my nonic pint glass.  It arrives in the glass a clear orange color with an off white head sitting on top.

The nose has something very familiar to it but it takes me a bit to place.  I finally got it, lemongrass.  Yes indeed I get lemongrass in this.  It is backed with some hints of orange and pine as well as a bready malt smell.

The lemongrass is back again in the taste but complimented with a more earthy hop character then what I got in the nose.  The malt back bone has a caramel and bready taste to it that really brings it all together.  And it finishes with a slight bitterness.

I absolutely loved the nose on this one.  Lemongrass is a smell and taste I don’t get much in beers let alone a double IPA.  I’m sort of curious what sort of hops caused this nose and taste.  I don’t think they actually added lemongrass to the beer.  Regardless I enjoyed it.

But overall this is a well balanced double IPA.  It hits you with hops upfront but then settles things back down with it’s malt backing.  I do remember liking this one when Ed brought it by but I absolutely forgot every reason why until having it again.

The lemongrass character in this would make it a great pairing for some spicy Thai food.  That taste will go well along with the hops cutting some of the heat.

Grade - B+

Name – Myrcenary
Country – United States
Type – American Double IPA

Pretty crazy last few days.  While Florida got spared getting hit by Hurrican Irene the Carolinas and a majority of the Northeast took the hit from it.  Man my family in Pennsylvania and New Jersey got the effects of the Virginia earthquake then parts of a hurricane.  They aren’t use to stuff like that.  Glad that everyone I know is okay and doing well.  So on with life and life is beer.

Today’s review is of Myrcenary from Odell Brewing Company out of Fort Collins, Colorado.  They are one of my favorite breweries that I can not readily get.  When visiting the brewery last September I was blown away by how good their beers were.  This bottle comes courtesy of Billy Broas of BillyBrew.com from a trade we recently made.  I couldn’t wait to pop this one open.

It pours a cloudy golden color into my Funky Buddha pint glass.  The small white head on top is gone quicker than I would like but oh well.

The nose is full of hops.  Grapefruit, orange and other citrus and tropical fruit just fill your nose.

The taste attacks you with fruit sweetness up front and then you start getting the bitterness from the hops.  A slight bit of maltiness can be picked up in there before it goes back to the hoppy fruit attack.  It’s medium in body and almost too easy to drink for a 9.3% ABV beer.

I would maybe call this a hop bomb as it’s not that balanced out.  But some people like that.  And I really enjoy one every so often as a break from balance.  How boring would it be if we just liked only the same things all the time.  Real freaking boring!

So once again another Odell beer down and another Odell be that is great in my opinion.  These folks never cease to amaze me by their beer making skills.  Anyone that can easily obtain Odell truly has a number of great treats right at your finger tips.  Thanks to Billy for this one in the trade.

Grade - A-

Name – Japanese Green Tea IPA
Country – United States
Type – American Double IPA

Let me start by saying thank you to everyone that read and appreciated my little rant I wrote on Saturday.  I was actually going into it thinking that if people actually read it I may get some lash back for it.  But it was actually the opposite.  Many of you read it and, even better, many of you agreed.  Because I don’t want to make this all about me I will just leave it at thank you for being awesome and thank you for being the true people in the craft beer community.

So on to another review how about it?

There are a number of breweries that love doing collaborations.  Three Floyds, BrewDog and Dogfish Head are just a few of the multi offenders.  But I think Stone is probably the most common collaborator of them all.  It seems like ever other month they have a new collaboration with brewers from all over the world.  But rarely do we in South Florida get our hands on them.  A lot of these batches are small and are typically kept in the local Southern California area.  Some of them make their ways to other markets but we are usually left out.

But for one of their latest collaborations we lucked out.  South Florida’s Fresh Beer/Brown Specialty was the only distributor in Florida to get any of the Japanese Green Tea IPA.  Those are some bragging rights huh?  The collaboration between Stone, Iishi Brewing Co out of Guam and Baird Brewing Co out of Japan is marked to remember those affected by the earthquake and tsunami that shook Japan in March.  And all proceeds go to the relief fund.  Very cool.

So how does a double IPA brewed with green tea taste?

I poured the beer into my Stone pint glass and it arrives a very cloudy golden color.  There is a very thin white head on top but it is gone in seconds.  No real signs of lacing on the glass.

As you would expect from Stone the nose is full of big hops.  They smell amazingly fresh and full of citrus.  I get a very slight hint of the tea in there but the hops seem to gobble it all up.

Now there is the green tea.  The taste is a nice balanced mixed of the same citrus hops but with some nice bitterness of green tea.  The bitterness lingers for a little bit afterward but I find it very pleasant.  A slight malt backing to it really brings things together in this beer.

And one big thing of note on this beer was that first sip I thought it was a so so beer.  But as I went through the glass I started liking it more and more.  The tea in there was really unique.  I mean I’ve had beers with tea in them but never one with green tea.

When I reviewed Funky Buddha’s So Thank You Music I mentioned how great it would go paired with Asian food.  Well add this beer to that category as well.  It truly made me think I was sipping some cold hybrid tea in a little sushi joint.

This was a great beer and for a great cause.  I wish we could see more of it but that seems highly unlikely.  Maybe this will come back as an Anniversary Ale or some seasonal someday.

Grade - A-