Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop IPA

As the name implies, Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop IPA is only hopped with Warrior hops. Warrior hops are primarily used for their bittering properties, though they are sometimes used for their aromatic characteristics. Mikkeller's website calls Warrior IPA, "An extremely fresh-hopped IPA." Sounds intriguing, however their website translations are not very trustworthy.

Warrior IPA has a silky body. The aroma has notes of bubble gum, grass (hay or wheat), and tropical fruit. The flavor follows through on the aroma's foundation expressing tropical fruit and bubble gum flavors ending in a long, bitter finish that is aggressive but not uncomfortable. It can be reminiscent of a wheat beer due to the grass and bubble gum character. It is not an overtly fruity IPA. 

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

Torpedo Extra IPA is Sierra Nevada's newest addition to their year-round release line. It's the first addition to their year-round roster in over a decade. Torpedo refers to the new dry-hopping device created by the brewery. It's a pressurized cylindrical tube (shaped like a torpedo) containing hops. The Torpedo is inserted into a special pipe running out of the fermenter. Beer is forced down the pipe, through the Torpedo and back into the fermenter. The hops in the Torpedo impart the beer with hop aroma, oil and resin without extracting any bitter flavors the way traditional dry-hopping does. 

Torpedo IPA also uses a new hop varietal named Citra. It is said to impart pineapple, mango and papaya flavors. Citra was developed by Sierra Nevada in conjunction with two other breweries, and this is its first appearance in a bottled beer. 

The hops used in this brew sound like a couple of strippers and their preferred choice of protection. Everyone welcome Crystal, Citra and their Magnum to the party! Torpedo's coloring is apricot. The aroma is fruity with occasional hints of green bananas. It is also slightly herbal. I did not find any pineapple or mango in the aroma and can't recall eating papaya. I hate to say it, but the aroma reminds me of tropical fruit Starburst. The hop flavoring is flowery with notes of pine in the dry finish. Like Mikkeller's Simcoe Single Hop,  Torpedo's flavor has a strong yet smooth bitterness that doesn't cripple your tongue.  

        

Blue Point Hoptical Illusion IPA

Blue Point Hoptical Illusion comes from Long Island. Malt strikes first in the rich, inviting aroma. This ale smells like Cake and Biscuits. The aroma isn't terribly hoppy. The flavor is bright and hoppy, but lacks a bitter bite. There is also a strong English Breakfast tea character to the flavor. It drinks best on the colder side. Hoptical Illusion sticks with the British style of IPA, but at least it doesn't emulate the French.

Smuttynose IPA

When I first got into IPAs, I was drawn to unbalanced, hoppy ales. I have since come to appreciate malt-hop balance in my IPAs. Some breweries, notably Dogfish Head, changed course to strive for more balance in their ales. Smuttynose was not as hoppy as I remembered in aroma and flavor, but it is very well balanced. 

Smuttynose has a strong malt backbone. It's balance is evident in the nose which smelled of earth, spice, and orange rind. The flavor followed through on the aroma's foundation and, like an orange rind, was slightly sweet followed by a bitter resin flavor. Smuttynose has always been very bitter, and that hasn't changed. The bitterness is the only unmuted aspect of the flavor, which is otherwise balanced and subtle.

 

Cape Cod Beer IPA

I just had a bitter experience. After all the big beers I've put away in my time, I never thought I'd be punished by hop bitterness again. But, as my Dad likes to say, "You never know what you're gonna get." Today, I had a pint of Hyannis' Cape Cod Beer IPA, and it crippled my taste buds with bitter blasts. For pure bitter flavor, this beer out betters any other I've had. 

The pint began with a cloying bitter flavor that completely overwhelmed every other nuance of the ale. The bitterness is why my eyes look crazy in the picture, they are puckering. About a third of the way through the pint my taste buds recovered from their paralysis, my mustache hairs uncurled, and other flavors began to show themselves. This IPA is well hopped with what I think are Cascade hops. They really shine through in the aroma. It has a nice sweet malt flavor, along with more robust malt flavors of caramel that occasionally shine through. It ends with the aforementioned bitter kick. Cape Cod IPA is clean and drank like a good session beer (not too thick or heavy). It is reminiscent of Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale, except the hop and malt action are amped way up.     

In other news, we here at BK Beertasters are anticipating the triumphant comeback post of the B himself. 

Full Sail IPA

Full Sail is a brewery out of Hood River, Oregon and they offer an India Pale Ale. Considering I'm in New Orleans, and the demand for IPAs here is about as low as the demand to revoke the right to bear arms, I was lucky to find this beer. It's not the most amazing IPA, but it's a hell of a buy for the price.


Full Sail's IPA has a good aroma with hints of orangey citrus and pine. It has the same aromatic dynamic as Pine Sol, without the nasty chemicals (I mean this in a good way). There's also a slight bready or dough flavor to the aroma.


The flavor has great balance. No one element of malt or hop outshines the other. It begins with a sweet fruit flavor of orange peel, then a doughy malt flavor opens up. It ends with a slight bitter finish out of the blue. It is very clean, very dry and barely leaves any residual flavors on the palate.

Mississippi Beer Tour

A couple months ago I went to Mississippi for a beer tasting. Up to that point, Mississippi was just a part of the Waffle House corridor on the way to Biloxi. I had never hung out with real Mississippi people before so I was a little apprehensive. Turns out, my as fears were baseless. People in Louisiana are much worse than Mississipians.

The first stop was Lazy Magnolia Brewery in Kiln, Mississippi, which may be the only brewery in Mississippi. Not seeing any hicks lurking in the bushes with shotguns, I ducked into the brewery unscathed. Their main beer is called Southern Pecan. It's a brown ale brewed with pecans. I'm still waiting on their crayfish spiced ale. Lazy Magnolia also sells something called Party Pigs. The only bummer about the tour was that it's against the law for breweries in Mississippi to serve or sell alcohol, so there were no samples. Mississippi has a grocery list of regulations regarding alcohol. One example is that it's illegal to sell beer with an abv higher than something like 5.5% [It's actually only 5%]. You can still buy whiskey though. We rolled on to my boy Beer Buddha's [copyright used by permission] friend's house for the tasting. This dude had a cellar the likes of which I've never seen. Two closets full of beer. He gets around the medieval beers laws in Mississippi via the internet. He finds people from all over the country online and trades beer. He even had something that could chill a warm beer in under five minutes.

The first beer we tried was Mt. Carmel Stout from Cincinnati. It had a nice brown head with tiny bubbles. There were a nice subtle roasted flavor, like roasted vanilla. The body was thin and creamy but the mouthfeel had weight.

The next beer we sampled was Alesimith's IPA from Cali. It came equipped with a large hoppy bouquet in the nose followed by a lemon citrus flavor, high acidity, and a bitter kick.

Next up was Hvedegood from Three Floyd's, a favorite brewery of mine. This was a wheat wine, or a barley wine brewed with some portion of wheat. It smelled like a barley wine, with a sweet, deep aroma that wasn't boozy or pungent. It's lighter in body and mouthfeel than other barleys with a strong flavor of orange rind. The flavor also had hints of toasted bread and cookies with a bitter dose of hops in the finish. It's well hopped like most Three Floyd's brews, but this isn't overwhelming apparent in the nose and flavor.

Then came Alesmith's Old Numbskull with it's pleasantly sharp bitterness. It had a beautiful deep red coloring. There was a hint of curry in the aroma. The flavor was creamy and layered with complexity containing hints of chocolate and pine needles that stuck to my mouth.

Last up was Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout. Goose Island is out of Chicago, and this beer is a stout aged in Bourbon Casks. The was a strong, spicey note of Bourbon in the aroma with a rich vanilla flavor in addition to roasted malt. It was very oily and rich.

Bell's Two Hearted Ale

Two Hearted Ale is a fantastic IPA from Bell's brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This brew starts with a citrus hop aroma close to grapefruit but also lemony. It's really hoppy and the aroma is sharp and powerful. The hop aroma carries over into the flavor. There is a firm malt body, adding a balancing force to the strength of the hops. The label is great as well. For whatever reason, most beers don't have labels that are so suggestive of a way of life. It would be funny if Natty Light did. Picture a Natty label with a college guy standing in a kiddie pool. He is under a waterfall of beer that sloshes around his calves and has a huge grin that implies he would rather be nowhere else. That would be a nice label.

Boston Beer Tour

I was in Boston last weekend and, as is my wont, went out and got some good beers. Mostly, I hit up oldies but goodies I can't get my hands on in the Siberian winter of beer that Florida is. I didn't really get to try any new beers because I found so many that I knew were money. I like to do a little quality control just to check and make sure my favorite ladies haven't changed.

I went for Bear Republic's Racer 5 IPA first. This is probably the best IPA I've ever had. It's perfect and I wouldn't change a thing about it. It has a spot-on balance of malt and hops and neither one gets out of line. The aroma varies between citrus and pine. It has a long silky body that highlights both the malt and the hops. This beer is liquid luxury.


Avery 'Twelve' Saison Ale is Avery's twelveth anniversary beer. A Saison is a spiced Belguin farm ale brewed to toast the spring. This version is the most appetizing form of Saison that I've encountered. It has a spicey, soapy cinnamon aroma and I mean this in the best way. It tastes like spiced cake and smells like a cosmetic product. I would bathe myself in it if that were acceptable. This beer is amazing for it's uniqueness. It is very rare (and possibly out of production) so I would recommend grabbing it if you see it in the store.



Next, I was on to Middle Ages BrewCo's Druid Fluid out of Syracuse, NY (I think). The Druids were some sort of midget people from England similar to present day Gypsies. This beer is a barley wine. It has smooth and thin body that isn't as thick and robust as most barley wines. This suits it because it's easier to cram more of it into your stomach. It's high in alcohol too. I drank a bottle at a family party and considered myself lucky that my pants were still on when I finished. My point isn't to mention that my family takes off their pants at parties but rather that it is high in alcohol. Unfortunately I didn't take notes and I was a little drunk when I drank it, so I don't have anything important to say about the flavor, etc. I will say that this is a great beer. The brewery makes a whole line of beers that are all good, well-made, tasty ales.

Pictured here is a picture that's very small. Dogfish Head's Raison d'Extra is pictured small for your own protection. This is the portion size I would recommended trying of this beer, that is to say small. It's somewhere around 15%. D'extra is a jacked up version of Raison D'etre, similar to Barry Bond's head circa 2006 vs. his head circa 1989: Big and Bulbous. This ale is brewed with a boatload of raisins. It's sort of like a Port in a.b.v. and flavor/aroma. It has a big aroma and flavor with notes of prunes and, obviously, raisins. Unlike my counterpart, I shared this Dizzy Fizzle beer with four people. My portion was 3 or 4 ounces. Even with such a small glass, I still felt it like a shot of whiskey. I even had to slow myself down on three ounces, but that was because it was lunch time. In my opinion, this is Dogfish Head's best attempt at a high alcohol beer as far as flavor is concerned. The World Wide Stout has more complexity, but you can find yourself wondering why they brewed it and, worse, wondering why you are drinking it. Raison D'Extra on the other hand, has a good flavor and is pleasing to drink if you like big, dank, pruney flavors like certain Ports.

Clipper City's Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale

The Clipper City Brewery of Baltimore, Maryland offers several brands of beer, most of which aren't very good. The lone exception is their Heavy Seas series that features high alcohol, robust beers. Loose Cannon is the shining star of the series. It is called a HOP3 (cubed) Ale because it is hopped three different ways - in the kettle, on it's way out of the kettle, and during fermentation. Anyway, HOP3 is just a fancy way of saying it's an I.P.A.

Of greatest concern to me is the label. It features a pirate looking the wrong while his cannon fires and knocks a bird overboard. Just in case the viewer has cognitive problems understanding pictorial scenes, the artist was gracious enough to add dialogue saying, 'Bird Overboard.' What never ceases to amaze me is why the bird is so resigned to it's fate? It can fly, why does it look so suprised? A better label might depict the cannon accidentally backfiring and blowing up both the pirate and the bird. It's Natural Selection: If the pirate can't see and the bird can't fly then they both should die.

The label is the only detail about this beer that I do not appreciate. Loose Cannon is an excellent beer with a strong hop aroma that is fruity without being specific, possibly suggesting fresh grapes. At 7.25% it has a healthy amount of alcohol but you would never know it from the brew's body. The body is quite thin and smooth, making Loose Cannon a beer you can drink and drink more of without feeling like you need to make more room for beer by burping. On the palate, this ale provides an excellent balance between crisp maltiness and hop flavor while finishing dryly with a slight bitterness. This beer is a great choice, don't be fooled by the label like I was - it gives you something to bristle at while you drink your beer.