IPA Head-to-Head Stone's IPA vs Laurelwood's Workhorse IPA

It’s the last week of April, which means it’s the last IPA Head-to-Head. We’ll be pairing up Stone’s IPA against Laurelwood’s Workhorse IPA, both of which I’ve never had. I’ve had Stone’s Ruination IPA and many of their other brews, but this one has alluded me. This was also my first experience with Laurelwood. So, this IPA Head-to-Head was one of firsts, and because of that I was pretty excited. But, before we get into the Head-to-Head I’d like to announce that next month’s Head-to-Head will be with Pale Ales (thanks Mark from mustlovebeer.com for the input). Alright, let’s get into it.

Stone’s IPA comes in at an ABV of 6.9% with 77 IBUs. It pours a strong frothy white head that lingers. The color is golden and a very cloudy clarity, which I really like to see. The smell is strongly of hops with citrus hints. The overall aroma is strong and delicious. Look - 23, Smell - 24.5.

The flavor is big hops! The texture of this IPA is great, it expands on the tongue with good carbonation. The hops give a bit of an earthy flavor with citrus bitter notes. Will helped me out with this tasting and he felt it was clean, and that it wasn’t an overwhelming IPA, but for someone who isn’t real into IPAs that it was something he would like to have again. Overall, this IPA is a solid west coast representation of an IPA without being over the top hoppy. Flavor - 47.5.

Rating: 95/100

Laurelwood Workhorse IPA has an ABV of 7.5% with 80 IBUs.  The head pours somewhat creamy and dissipates quickly, but coats the glass well. The clarity is somewhat cloudy, but rather clear. The color is a bit darker than Stone’s IPA with a darker golden color and yellow hues. The smell is very light, and the hops come through with a “buttery” aroma, but the overall smell is very mellow/light. Look - 21, Smell - 19.

The flavor is bitter and has a stronger citrus flavor with light buttery hints. The 80 IBUs do a good job of leaving a nice fuzzy coat on the tongue. Orange zest finds its way into the aftertaste with an expected bitterness. Workhorse is much more bitter orientated, which I like, but Will didn’t like the lack of balance. The lack of aroma really made its way into the taste, which prevented this ale from being as good as it could be. The overall flavor of the Laurelwood Workhorse IPA is simple and bitterly hoppy. Flavor - 45.

Rating: 85/100

Even though Stone wins by 10 points, this is a very close Head-to-Head. Stone barely won out on flavor, and it was Laurelwood’s clearer clarity and light smell that inevitably cost it the Head-to-Head. Both these beers are well worth your money and taste buds to pick-up, and I really recommend pairing these two up with a friend at see who comes on top. But, like all match-ups there needs to be a winner, so with that said, with an Overall Score of 95/100 the Beer Fusion declares...

Winner: Stone’s IPA

I'll Take a Note, a "C-Note"... Lompoc's C-Note Imperial Pale Ale

With today being a holiday (Easter or Pascha), I’ll be making this week’s review somewhat short, but I’ll be making sure to give this week’s beer its full justice. This month has kind of become an IPA month with the IPA Head-to-Head, so I’m keeping with that theme and I had my first beer from the Portland brewery - Lompoc. I gave the beer store website www.northwestliquidgold.com a try, and one of the six beers I ordered was Lompoc’s C-Note Imperial Pale Ale. I would first like to say, I was very happy with my order from Northwest Liquid Gold, they did a great job and the delivery was quick. With that said, let us take a look at Lompoc’s C-Note.

You can visit their website here, and this is what they have to say about their C-Note:

To call C-Note very hoppy would be an understatement. It's brewed with the seven "C" hops (Crystal, Cluster, Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, Columbus and Challenger) and pushes the bitterness limit to 100 International Bitterness Units.

C-Note has an ABV of 6.9% and 100 IBUs. It pours a small off-white head that dissipates rather quickly. The color is a dark amber with strong red hues, and the clarity is somewhat cloudy. The look of this beer was fantastic. Head - 8, Look - 15. The smell came off sweet and fruity at first, but the earthiness of the hops quickly began to overpower the aroma of this beer. The seven different hops create a rather musky smell that may only truly appeal to the hophead. Malt is very subtle in the aroma, and can be easily confused with the strong musk from the seven varieties of hops. I would have liked a bit more citrus behind the hops, and less of an oily smell. Smell - 22.

I was a bit surprised with my first sip. The carbonation hit well and the overall flavor was much lighter than I expected, but the bitterness hit strong in the middle of the drink. The aftertaste was mostly dry and bitter without any other real character. Palate - 7.5, Aftertaste - 7.5. As I’ve already mentioned, the carbonation was a bit strong, but in a good way - very enjoyable. The hoppiness didn’t come out as much as I would have liked in the flavor. I got a strong amount of bittering hops without any strong citrus or floral flavors. This beer came off bitter and light, which shouldn’t be confused with balanced. If you want a bitterly hopped beer without the flavor complexities of some of the other 100+ IBU beers this is for you, and I have to say if I want a refreshingly high hopped beer that doesn’t overwhelm this fits that category. Flavor - 25.

I might sound negative about this beer, but I’m not. I am, however, a little disappointed, because I had an idea in my mind about what this beer could be with those seven different “C” hops. Now, my preconceived expectations shouldn’t hurt this beer. With its lower ABV, considering other beers in the 100+IBU category, this is a refreshing hopped to death bitter beer. When I’m in Portland next I’ll look for this on tap, especially if it’s a warm day. C-Note fits well in a category of high IBU refreshing beers; beers that you can just sit back and enjoy on a deck in the sun. With an Overall Flavor of 40/50 the Beer Fusion gives Lompoc’s C-Note Imperial Pale Ale....

Rating: 85/100

IPA Head-to-Head Ninkasi's Total Domination IPA vs Samuel Smith's India Ale

This week’s IPA Head-to-Head is against two breweries that couldn’t be any more far apart (well they could, but let’s not worry about that). I’m talking about Ninkasi Brewing Company and Samuel Smtih. We’ll be putting up Ninkasi’s Total Domination IPA against Samuel Smith’s India Ale. Before going into this Head-to-Head, I’ve had Total Domination many a time (did I mention I went to UO in Eugene, OR?), and it’s one of my favorite staple IPAs, but I’ve never had Samuel Smith’s India Ale. Now, Total Domination isn’t my favorite IPA by Ninkasi (that would be Tricerahops), but it ranks high in the general IPA category, but I felt I was rather bias going into this Head-to-Head, which is why I brought in friend/coworker/and Washington State Alum to bring the bias down. For those of you who don’t know, Ninkasi is out of Eugene, OR and so is the University of Oregon, and Washington State University and University of Washington students/alum aren’t big fans of UO. Since everyone is caught up on the reduction of bias for this Head-to-Head, let the battle begin.

Ninkasi’s Total Domination IPA comes in at 6.7 ABV and 65 IBUs. It pours a strong creamy white head that lingers for a good long while. The color is a lighter golden amber with noticeable carbonation and hazy/cloudy clarity. The cloudiness of the beer really got Will’s attention, and was something he really liked about this beer. The smell was a strong citrus hop smell, but the overall aroma wasn’t strong. This was something that WIll also liked about Total Domination, because he’s not the biggest IPA fan, and the smell wasn’t overbearing. Look - 23, Smell - 22.

Total Domination hit bitter, but crisp with a clean hop presence. There was definitely a presence of Cascade hops with a subtle pale maltiness. The carbonation was light, and I would have liked a little more carbonation. Will described the taste as similar to a tart saison, but more hoppy. I agree, that the Total Domination has a tartness to its flavor that is accompanied with the citrus hop flavor. Will made the comment that if he was going to pick up an IPA that he would drink it would be like this one. Flavor - 44

Rating: 89/100

Samuel Smith’s India Ale has an ABV of 5%, and I was unable to find any IBU information. The India Ale poured a creamy off-white head that lingered a bit less than the Total Domination, but still poured nicely. The color was a dark amber with red hues, and the clarity was clear besides the color - unlike the cloudiness of the Total Domination. The smell was a light oak whiskey with sweet malt, and a very fruity smell that reminded Will of red grapes and me of fruit snacks (grape and strawberry). The hops were only there in a subtle citrusness - hardly noticeable.  Look - 20.5, Smell - 18.5.

Will described the taste as “eatable”, it was thick and expanded well, but the fruitiness of the smell carried over strongly to the taste. This ale is sweet. We both kept searching around our own taste buds for a hop presence, but eventually we could only find it in the bitterness of the aftertaste. The aftertaste begins sweet, but after a while you get a sour bitterness. Grape and strawberry dominated the overall flavor with malt backing those fruit flavors up. We both questioned this beer being labeled an IPA, because even the most balanced IPAs have a noticeable hop presence. This isn’t a bad beer, just not a strong representation of an IPA. Flavor - 34.

Rating: 73/100

It’s safe to say that we had a Total Domination of Total Domination. There wasn’t much competition this week. I strongly recommend picking up a bomber or six pack of Ninkasi’s Total Domination IPA. It’s a great beer to introduce someone to IPAs, and for those who are already big fans of the style it’s a staple. So, with all that said, this week’s Head-to-Head IPA winner is Ninkasi’s Total Domination IPA with a total score of 89/100!

Stohn on the 49th Street Homebrew Showdown

Stohn, who’s one of the Gentlemen, texted/emailed (I don’t remember which) me last week asking if I wanted him to do a write up about the 49th Street Homebrew Showdown in Seattle, and I quickly replied with a resounding yes! Below is his write up. Also, the IPA Head-to-Head will be up tomorrow with a head-to-head between Ninkasi’s Total Domination IPA and Samuel Smith’s India Ale. Without further ado, one of the three Gentlemen - Mr. Stohn:

This past Saturday, I was invited to the 49th Street Homebrew Showdown in the U-District of Seattle.  The event was partially-private – only those involved could invite their friends and their friends could invite theirs, and so on.  I went with my friend Kodi, who invited me to this event, along with our families.  I really appreciated the family-friendly environment – besides Kodi’s 10-month-old son and my 1-year-old son, there were about 3 other babies there, along with a few other children.  It’s a good reminder that beer is a family activity, as people understood for thousands of years.
 

There were 20 beers, 1 sake, and 1 rootbeer entered in the competition. We were each given a 4-ounce glass, of which about 3 ounces was filled when tasting. The beers were served at a bar-setup, with most being on tap, and some being served from bottles or growlers.
Judging criteria:    1 = “Piss”
        3 = “Dirty Socks”
        5 = “Not too shabby”
        7 = “I’ll have another”
        10 = “Life Changing”

I have to admit that I didn’t try anything life-changing.  However, I fully support competitions like these because they are the backbone of craft beer.  Without ordinary people experimenting the brewing, we would not have the amazing beers we have today.

To highlight a few of the beers, let’s look at the beers that placed in the top three for the competition:

1.    Rye.P.A. (6.7% ABV):  It was surprising to me that this beer won, although I see why people went for it. It’s a very solid IPA made with cascade hops, had a wonderful cascade aroma with a nice head, although it was quite cloudy in appearance. It had a decent hop bite to it – if I had to guess the IBUs, I would put it in the high 50s to low 60s. The carbonation was just right, giving the IPA a good finish. It was a solid beer, and I gave it a 7, but the brewer(s) really didn’t put himself out there to try something innovative, and it didn’t stand out above any other decent IPA.

2.    Sweet Cranberry Apple Mead (12% ABV):  This was my surprise favorite. After I took the first sip, I exclaimed, “This is some crazy shit!” And crazy shit it was – I was very impressed with the brewer’s creativity. It was a clear, yellow-ish color, with a surprisingly heavy head. The mead was high in carbonation, but not off-putting.  When the mead hits the tongue it immediately comes off as sour, but quickly fades into a fruity sweetness. The high alcohol content was balanced by and ever so slight bitterness. I gave it a 9.

3.    Blackout Oatmeal Stout (6.5% ABV):  Again, I was surprised that this one placed in the top three, given its lack of innovation. It poured nicely as pitch-black with a very creamy head. Kodi described the taste as similar to Guinness Foreign Extra, which is a very good comparison. It had a heavy, malty flavor that was balanced by just enough hops, and had some light chocolate and smokey notes. It was a good, medium-body beer, but it just didn’t stand out to me, and thus I gave it a 7.

To briefly highlight some other beers:

“WTF” – This porter with 10% ABV was one of my favorites. It had a strong, creamy head with delicious nut and chocolate notes. It had a surprisingly light feel, as the warmth of the alcohol was balanced with not being able to taste the alcohol. I gave this creative, balanced beer an 8.

Raisin Barley Wine Hop Vine Brutality – Even though I gave this 17% ABV barley wine a 2, I must defend the brewer. Although this beer was sour with a metallic-like aftertaste, I have to give the brewer some real props for trying something like this. It takes a lot of balls to try a very high alcohol barley wine.

Root Beer – I just want to give a brief shout out to craft root beer, as I’ve going to more and more craft breweries, I’ve been trying their root beer, and I am very impressed at what can be done when you brew rather than mix syrup with carbonated water.

It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun. In my opinion, these kinds of events should be encouraged, whether or not there are any great beers.  Homebrewing is what started the craft beer revolution, and it is what will continue it.  Additionally, the more people who attempt to push the limits of what beer can be, the better and more creative beer will become.

“Homebrewing” is a practice older than “western civilization.”  In fact, for most of human history, homebrewing was the only form of brewing.  Even after the rise of commercial brewing, housewives would brew for their families and friends – marrying a woman who couldn’t brew would be like marrying a woman who couldn’t cook.  With Prohibition and the near monopolization of the beer industry, homebrewing all but disappeared for a while in America – in fact it was illegal.  That’s right – the land of freedom and pursuit of happiness banned a practice as old as baking bread – and it’s still illegal in Alabama and Mississippi.
Please homebrew, encourage homebrewing, and urge people to support giving all Americans the legal ability to participate in this ancient tradition.

Goose Island's Pere Jacques

News has been buzzing over the last few weeks about the Goose Island buy out, and I felt it was only appropriate to review one of their beers before the inevitable commercialism (or as Greg Koch says “lowest denominator”) of their beer. Rumors circulated early about the head brewmaster being fired, which only looks to validate the concerns of turning Goose Island into a factory of lowest denominator beer. I assume if you’re reading this blog that you’re a craft beer drinker, and therefore an advocate for craft beer, or, at the least, appreciate good beer. I haven’t had much connection with Goose Island. I’ve tried a couple of their general staples while visiting Chicago, and what I drank for this review, but other than that I really haven’t had much of their beer. The beer in the spotlight this week is Goose Island’s Pere Jacques, which won me over early on by the simple, but interesting story surrounding the name of the beer. You can watch the video of the explanation of the name here.

The website has this to say about Pere Jacques:

Brewed with loads of malt and Belgian yeast, Pere Jacques is a wonderfully fruity, malty ale. Pere Jacques’ complex flavors stand shoulder to shoulder with the Belgian Dubbels enjoyed in the world’s finest beer bars. At the dining table it’s the perfect alternative to a glass of vintage port.

Pere Jacques has an ABV of 8% with 26 IBUs, and is a Belgian style Abbey Ale. The head pours, well... the head wasn’t exactly there. I poured the beer as I normally do, which tends to be more on the head heavy side, but this beer did not live up to the websites pictures. The color was a gorgeous amber with strong red tints and a cloudiness. Head - 3, Look - 12.5. The smell was very fruity and aromatic. G smelled honey and a combination of dates/prunes. The dried fruit was strong for me as well, and the malt’s sweetness was another intense aspect of the smell. The strong sweetness was a little much for me, but G liked the different aromas coming through. Smell - 23.

My initial reaction to the taste was much like the smell - sweet. The malt and yeast provide a strong Belgian sweetness than I’m not use to, which isn’t necessarily bad. The alcohol for G was a strong component, but the yeast and general sweetness were the major flavors that came through. The texture was strong and full, which was very enjoyable. The aftertaste was crisp and well balanced. There was some sweetness, and a nice presence of hops to finish it off. Palate - 8, Aftertaste - 8. G found the overall flavor to be sweet, but easy to drink. The sweetness seems to be, for myself, a reoccurring aspect of this beer, but the more I drank the more it became similar to white grapes with an added breadiness from the Belgian yeast. Flavor - 25.

Pere Jacques isn’t a beer that stands out from the other Belgian style ales, but it is a good solid beer. There was nothing here that made me rethink the style, nothing that made me sit back and say “wait a minute”, but it doesn’t have to. I’m perfectly content with drinking this beer and not thinking. Sometimes we get excited and caught up in the snobbery of drinking craft beer, and forget to enjoy it. Pere Jacques was enjoyable, and made me happy to drink craft beer. I’m upset that they’re going the way of the macro-machine, and I hope this doesn’t become a trend. I most likely won’t pick up another bottle of Pere Jacques, but for this beer that doesn’t take away from my enjoyment. With an Overall Flavor of 41/50 the Beer Fusion gives Goose Island’s Pere Jacques...

Rating: 79.5/80

IPA Head-to-Head Hopworks' Ace of Spades & Great Divide's Hercules Double IPA

IPA SHOWDOWN! Or, IPA Head-to-Head, either way we’ve got two beer ready to battle for supremacy. This week we’re tasting Hopworks’ Ace of Spades and Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA. Both of these beers are strong in personality, and both G and I had different feelings about both of them, which made for an interesting head-to-head. We did, however, agree on the same winner, so there wasn’t any tension there. So, let the head-to-head begin!

Hopworks Urban Brewery’s Ace of Spades comes in at an ABV of 9.5%, and has 100+ IBUs - which I always love to see, also, did I mention it’s organic? The “organicness” of this beer really has no wait though. Ace of Spades poured a light head, which was expected based on the ABV. The color is a beautiful amber color with red hints, and the head does a nice job of coating the glass. G found the color to be rather typical of most IPAs we’ve had, but it looked a bit darker to me than a lot of IPAs we’ve had. This beer got G excited, because he loves Amarillo hops (not Armadillo), and the smell was so hoppy! All of the many hops came out - Amarillo, Cascade, and Centennial. Did I mention it smelled strong of hops? Look - 22.5, Smell - 25.

I found the flavor bitter, alcohol sweet as well as sweet malt. It expanded nicely on the tongue, which left a full flavor and a full feel. It finishes bitter, warm, and leaves a great fuzzy feel on the tongue. With more and more drink the alcohol gets pretty strong and dominates the taste, but if drunk slower it might not have become as strong/present. G liked it at first, but, as he drank more, the alcohol taste for him also became very strong, and the hops took a backseat to the heat of the alcohol. This is a beer that has a higher ABV, but I really expected the hop flavor to be more dominate based on the smell. Flavor - 43.

Rating: 90.5/100

Next we’ve got Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA, which comes in at an ABV of 10% with 85 IBUs. Hercules poured a darker amber color with red hues, somewhat bubbly and had a small head. I wanted the head to lace the glass a little more than it did, because even Ace of Spades with its small head laced the glass well. The smell was surprisingly nutty! It head a heavy pistachio/pine nut smell with a light maple sweetness behind the nuts - the hops did not come through very strong at all. The lack of hops smell really surprised both of us, because this is a Double IPA, and where are the hops? Look - 23, Smell - 22.

The flavor was sadly represented by the smell - nutty. G tasted a very strong presence of pine nuts. I also tasted a strong nut presence, but also a strong malty presence with the hops only present at the finish for bitterness. I really like Great Divide beers, but this Double IPA really surprised me. The lack of hops was disappointing, but the disappointment lies really in the expectation of a Double IPA. This is a solid beer, but it belongs in a different category. Either way, it didn’t have enough to take on the Ace of Spades. Flavor - 39.5.

Rating: 84.5/100

Both beers had their flaws, but one definitely had more than the other. Hopwork’s Ace of Spades lived up truer to the style, and left both of us more satisfied with it’s enormous amount of hops. It was a tough battle, but Hopworks Urban Brewery’s Ace of Spades comes out on top.

Winner: Ace of Spades
 

Fred is a Good Hair of the Dog...Hair of the Dog's Fred

Once again, it’s that time of the week again - the beer of the week. It’s been an interesting week of beer drinking for myself (being this week did have the National Beer Drinking day), having had a wide variety of brews, but only one was able to be this week’s beer. This week’s beer is from a brewery I’ve wanted to try for quite some time now, but for some odd reason I haven’t. But, that’s all history now, because I had the pleasure of trying the Portland brewery Hair of the Dog’s Fred. And, for all of you hoping for a beer with a moderate ABV, once again this isn’t going to be that kind of beer. Now, there’s an interesting story behind Fred, or if you don’t find it interesting there’s some meaning behind the name Fred. You can visit their website and have a look, or read what they’ve written below.

Fred was created to honor beer writer and historian Fred Eckhardt. Fred is a big inspiration for me and many other brewers. Fred's work in all-grain brewing and beer styles helped me become a better brewer. Fred the beer is a deep golden color. It is made with aromatic and rye malts and includes 10 different hop varieties in an effort to incorporate the whole world into this beer. It has 10% alcohol by volume and 65 IBUs. We hope that Fred will inspire you to share your knowledge with others as Fred has with us.


Fred comes in at a 10% ABV with 65IBUs (as you can read above). This beer poured a freakishly large thick white creamy head that really stuck around. I was somewhat surprised based on the high ABV, but when I popped the top off this beer the sound of carbonation gave me an expectation of a larger than normal head - still I was expecting that large. The look is of intense carbonation, and has a light brown color. Once the bottle is fully poured out you get a nice cloudy thickness due to it being bottle conditioned. Fred is alive! The addition of the bottle-conditioned yeast makes this beer look alive and physically thick - it excited me, because I felt as if I could take a bite out of it. Head - 9, Look - 15. The smell was mellower than I expected. The 10 different hops do come through in the smell, but you can’t put your finger on any specific hop. The malt provides a sweetness to the smell that was such that I could smell its stickiness. The yeast also adds some bready characteristics, and with all those elements there is somewhat of an earthy presence. Once again, there’s a lot of smells going on, but the smell isn’t as strong as you would expect. Smell - 22.


The first sip had a somewhat strong sweet malty flavor with an alcohol presence, which was then followed by all those nice 10 hop varieties. The texture was thick and chewable - just as expected by the look. The aftertaste was slightly malty, but primarily bitter from the hops, yet overall crisp. There’s a nice warmth at the very end of the drink that is felt on the back of the throat. Palate - 10, Aftertaste - 8.5. Upfront, this beer is thick! The texture is fantastic, when I talk about texture I generally think of Trappist ales, because they do it the best, but this beer has a great texture that I’ve been missing lately. The included yeast definitely adds that bready flavor, but the malt mellows it out into a sweet taste that is somewhat unique based on the inclusion of rye malt. In the middle of the taste the hops make it through, but there’s so many different hop flavors that the bitterness is a mix of earthly, citrus, and pure bitterness, which carries to the finish. The finish is a warm bitterness, but the full smooth texture holds strong throughout the beginning and finish of the drink. Flavor - 28.


This is a fantastic beer, with only a couple things that I had issues with. Now, am I nit picking, probably, but either way I’m very satisfied with my first experience with Hair of the Dog. If this beer had an IBU of 70-75, I think it would have gotten a perfect score from me, but for those of you that really like a malty presence this beer might get a perfect score from you. Either way, I highly recommend getting yourself some Fred, and this is also a great beer to cellar. I might need to get myself another bottle to cellar. So, get yourself some Fred, and with all that - with an Overall Flavor of 46.5/50 the Beer Fusion gives Hair of the Dog’s Fred...

Rating: 92.5/100

IPA Head-to-Head Dogfish Head's 90min vs Lagunitas' Hop Stoopid

As I mentioned last week, we will not be having a geographical focus anymore for our mid-week review. Instead, Beer Fusion will be putting two beers head-to-head with each month having its own style focus. April is an IPA month, now that doesn’t mean just IPAs, but also doubles and imperials. We will, however, be pairing up beers of like sub-styles, i.e. a regular IPA won’t be going against an imperial. We’ll also be simplifying the grading process for the head-to-heads, with Smell - 25pts, Look - 25pts, and Flavor - 50pts. So, with all that said, our first head-to-head match up is between Dogfish Head’s 90 minute IPA and Lagunitas Brewing’s Hop Stoopid Ale.


Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute poured a golden brown color with good carbonation, and a strong creamy off-white head. The smell was very much hops, hops, hops, with a lingering smell of lemon zest and a subtle presence of pale malt. The alcohol smell wasn’t too strong, but balanced out nicely considering the 9% ABV. Look - 24, Smell - 23.


This IPA was surprisingly balanced. The hop presence was there, but not overpowering, and it had a nice bite with the alcohol. The finish was semi-sweet; G compared it to a barley wine like finish. I expected it to be more bitter, and normally I would be upset with the lack of bitterness in an IPA like this, but I can’t - it was so smooth and every flavor comes out just how it should. This is not the average 9%ABV IPA. Flavor - 48.5.


Rating: 95.5/100


Next we have Lagunitas’ Hop Stoopid, which comes in at 8%ABV. Hop Stoopid pours a lighter golden color than the 90min, and has a stronger carbonation. The head is a bit stronger with a thick-creamy white head. The smell is an overwhelming hoppy smell, much more so than the 90min; I think I smell Columbus and Cascade hops. G found the finishing hop aroma a bit much, but it was right up my alley. Look - 22.5, Smell - 20.


The flavor is very bitter, which was expected based on the strong hop smell, o and the 102 IBUs. There also seems to be a nice presence of tangerine that comes through. The malt is really in the background, but the texture on the palate lets you know it’s there. Overall, this is an expected strong IPA from the west coast (I prefer the west coast style - hops all the way), with a very bitter hoppy bite. Flavor - 45.

Rating: 87.5/100


It was a close battle, both beers poured out with a look of a champion. Dogfish came out strong with a great and agreed upon smell, where as Lagunitas left one of us a little off put. Going into the tasting it really was anyone’s fight, but the off-centered complexity of Dogfish barely beat out the strong hoppiness of this very good west coast IPA. At the end only one IPA stood empty, actually both were empty, but with a final score of 95.5 to 87.5 - Dogfish Head’s 90 minute IPA comes out victorious in our first Head-to-Head showdown.

Beer Fusion Radio Ep. 4 Zwickelmania 2011 (Click to Listen)

A recap of Beer Fusion's experience in Hood River during Zwickelmania.

Oskar Blues' Gubna and a Recap of a Crazy Weekend in Seattle

It’s Monday, which means that I’m a bit tardy on my beer review for last week, but I’ve got a reason - it’s up to all of you to decide whether or not it’s a good reason. My plan this weekend was to spend Saturday night in Seattle with G and a couple of friends, and visit some craft beer bars and drink some exceptional beer. I partly blame myself for what transpired next. See, I woke up that morning with the sun shining in my room, having slept until I naturally woke up, so I of course exclaimed, “this is going to be a great day!” Which, I now regret. Don’t get me wrong, the weekend wasn’t bad, just nothing what I expected. Everything was going great at the start, I went over to G’s house and had a couple beers (Iron Horse’s Black IPA, Double Mountain’s Hop Lava, Elysian's The Immortal IPA) with a delicious pizza - G was nice enough to allow me to finish off his growler of Hop Lava. We were then on our way, after a bit of course. I’m going to skip ahead on the story to the interesting parts. See, we live in Eastern Washington, so we have to drive over the pass to get to Seattle. Now, the pass, from what I understood, looked ok before we left, but once we started to reach the summit all hell broke loose. The snow was falling like a wet white blanket. The speed limit dropped to 35mph, and the roads were freezing. But, we were determined to persevere - we had beer to drink in Seattle dammit! Now, as we’re making our way down the summit things get bad, and this white car a few car lengths ahead looks to be having trouble; all the while, cars, excuse me - SUVs - were zipping by like there was nothing to worry about. Well, there was, that little white car starts to slide, and they do exactly what you’re not suppose to do - slam on the breaks. So, they slide and hit the embankment, we, with nowhere to go since no one moved over, have to try and get past this car as it bounces back into our lane. Our car then hits the ice and slides as they are coming towards us, G doing the only thing he can do, steers our car away from a head on collision and makes it a diagonal side impact. After an hour on the pass stuck, no one was hurt by the way, we made it off, only to find out 30 min later the pass closed. With all that, we trudged on to Seattle...

We met up with a friend of ours at a place called Red Mill burgers, were the food was good, but was mostly ruined for me by the rudeness I experienced from the staff. Now, I must admit, when our order was up they had half of our food out on a tray (the trays were stacked to about my chest - I’m 6’0 and the trays were very thin and flimsy). With the tray full of food and two large drinks I grabbed my tray as well as one other underneath one of my hands and the main tray with the other. I tried to let go of the bottom tray and as I did the drinks slid, and the tray bent dumping one soda (they didn’t sell beer) on someone’s food being prepared. Now, I feel bad and apologize and the worker looks at me like I did this on purpose, and after that I was like a leper. We moved on, and so did I. We next went to Elysian on Capital Hill. I wasn’t to into the atmosphere, and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it either. The bar was small, and the main dining area, which looked like a bar, wasn’t for those who didn’t buy food. Now, this is my problem with that. I’m with three other people, and the bar is small. If we were able to sit down in a comfortable area we would have bought more drinks than we did up at the bar - solution - a drink minimum or food if seated in the dining area. The first bartender also knew nothing about the Elysian beers and steered me to a piece of paper. Luckily, the bartender Allen showed up for redemption, and was a great server and very knowledgeable. We then got a recommendation from the other bartender to head to Quinn’s. Besides being out of Pliny the Elder - beer was $7.5 a pint and the bar smelled like cat urine. After that, the night got weirder, but all in all it was an adventure. I got back late Sunday without any more wreckage on the pass. So, without any further story telling let’s get into last week’s beer!

I would like to thank the guys at New Brew Thursday for the unintentional nudge to go seek out Oskar Blues’ Gubna. I’ve heard of this beer, and I’ve been recommended it a few times, but it’s not the easiest to find. When I saw NBT at Oskar Blues in an old episode, and I heard Gubna was an Imperial IPA with only one hop - I had to find it. Sure enough, back behind an assortment of Oskar Blues at the local beer store I found a couple Gubnas.

Oskar Blues’ Gubna is a magnificent 100IBUs and 10% ABV, and this is what they have to say about the Gubna:

Emphasizing that complexity of character can arise from simple elements, this ale is made with 3 malts and 1 hop. Its light amber color and slightly spicy malt character are derived from the use of German Dark Munich Malt and Rye Malt respectively. North American 2-row barley combines with the other grains to lay the foundation for the hop onslaught to come. Summit hops are used exclusively in the boil for bitterness, flavor and aroma but it doesn’t end there. Post-fermentation dry hopping allows the 10% ABV monstrosity to gently coax the citrus rind and grapefruit aroma to join the 100 IBUs already present. This beer will greet you with a pungent citrus blast, provide a spicy yet round middle and finish with a brisk, clean bitterness.

Since the beer comes in a can I was curious if there was any difference between the taste out of the can and out of the glass. So, I teasted it out.

Gubna pours with little to no head, which I expected based on the ABV, but I would have liked a little more substance to the head. The look was a light cloudy golden color with orange hues. The color was very different than many other imperial IPAs I’ve had in the past, but I enjoyed its uniqueness. Head - 8, Look - 13. Out of the glass, the Gubna had a very earthy hop smell with subtle malt overtones. The citrus notes were somewhat mild with notes of orange. Now out of the can the citrusness from the hops were very strong and very pronounced. The smell was clean and absent of that earthy smell. Smell - 22.

My initial reaction out of the glass was strong alcohol presence, reminded me almost of a barley wine. The hops were very mellow compared to other imperial IPAs, which kind of surprised me based on the IBUs. I wasn’t too blown away by the taste, and I love my IPAs! I then tasted from the can, and to my surprise the taste was cleaner, the hops came through with a citrus bitterness and mild spice, and the malts gave a full feel from behind the hops. The aftertaste from the glass pour was bitter and dry with a slight warming burn from the alcohol. Now, the aftertaste from the can was like they write, “a brisk, clean bitterness.” Palate - 8, Aftertaste - 9. The overall flavor from the glass is of very strong alcohol, and has hints of butterscotch. The expected flavors of a 100IBU beer just weren’t there out of the glass. Now the can provided the expected taste with a nice spice bite to the citrus flavor. It was cleaner and more enjoyable to drink. Now, as the can warmed up to room temperature it began to mimic some of the characteristics of the glass pour, but when drunk cold and cool the Gubna remained refreshing. Flavor - 25.

The Gubna was an interesting brew. I enjoyed it, and testing out if there were different tasting notes between the glass and the can. I recommend this beer for an unique experience, and give it a try in the glass and out of the can. I’ll definitely be sticking to out of the can with this one, and will proudly hold high my craft beer can. With an Overall Flavor of 42/50 the Beer Fusion gives Oskar Blues‘ Gubna...

Rating: 85/100