Ballast Point IPAs — Sculpin vs. Big Eye

Ballast Point

Big Eye IPA

ABV 7%

Ballast Point

Sculpin IPA

ABV 7%

San Diego has a ton of great breweries, many of which are well known for their deftness with hops. Being fond of the hops ourselves, we were very pleased to see that Ballast Point recently expanded its distribution to Southern Oregon. As I scanned the new selection of Ballast Point offerings I was surprised to see that there were two different IPAs available. Turns out that the people at Ballast Point are so enamored with hops that they have two IPAs available year-round. Two IPAs, one brewery — sounds like a Bottle Battle! As always we did a blind tasting to keep everything unbiased.

Beer #1 (Big Eye) was clear and reddish orange. It featured a fresh, grassy and piny aroma. Flavor was pine resin throughout with a nice clean balance of malt and hops. There was also a distinct fruitiness in the flavor that added extra complexity. The finish was moderately bitter — enough to know you were drinking an IPA, but not so much that your taste buds cringed.

Beer #2 (Sculpin) was a hazy brownish orange. The nose was earthy (almost vegetal) with some tropical fruits and peach mixed in. Malty fruit flavors dominated the flavor with a bit of tropical fruit hoppiness coming through as well. The finish was more sweet than we were expecting from an IPA, but even so, it managed to provide a pleasantly mild bitterness.

Interestingly enough, we thought both of these hoppy beers really excelled with their use of malts. We've tried our share of IPAs that were not much more than hop water so it's always nice to try some that seem to find that elusive balance. In both cases the malts provided a fruity complexity that was much more than just added sweetness. In the end, however, it was the hops that won us over as we both chose the Big Eye which was the hoppier of the two. 

Unanimous decision: Big Eye

Oregon Pilsners — Southern Oregon Brewing vs. Base Camp Brewing

Southern Oregon Brewing

Na Zdravi Czech Style Pilsner
ABV 4.8%

Base Camp Brewing

Ripstop Rye Pils
ABV 5.7% 

It's hard to beat a good pilsner on a hot day. If it's made right it should be crisp, refreshing and even a bit hoppy and bitter. On a broiling southern Oregon summer evening we put two Oregon pilsners into the ring to see which we liked best. As always we tasted blind for dramatic effect.

Beer #1 (Na Zdravi) was a hazy yellow with some grain and clean citrus hops on the nose. It had a nice sharpness/crispness with some flavors of grain and bread. The finish was mellow with more grain and a mild citrus bitterness.

Beer #2 (Ripstop) was clear and golden. It had a bit of a barnyard funkiness on the nose while the body was much richer and featured prominent bready flavors. The finish was quite malty and somewhat sweet and grainy with no hop bitterness at all.

If we judged these according to style the Na Zdravi would have won hands down, however that's not how we roll. We always judge on which beer we liked better and in this case we ended up choosing different beers. Ellen thought that the Na Zdravi was a bit too clean (bordering on lemon pledge) and preferred the smooth maltiness of the Ripstop. I went with the Na Zdravi simply because I was craving a beer with a modicum of hops and the Ripstop really had almost zero hop presence.

Split decision: Ellen chose the Ripstop, I chose the Na Zdravi

Beers We Picked Up in Los Angeles

 

 

 

Beachwood Brewing

Thrillseeker IPA
ABV 7.1%

Surf Brewery

County Line Rye Pale Ale
ABV 6% 

Apologies for the extended silence. We have been quite busy at the bakery and with entertaining guests so far this summer. We did have time to sneak in this bottle battle featuring two beers we picked up at a grocery store in LA. The Thrillseeker IPA is from Beachwood Brewing & BBQ in Long Beach and the County Line Rye is from Surf Brewery in Ventura. 

 

Right out of the gate neither beer really impressed us. The County Line Rye had a sweet rye bread aroma with a fairly simple malt-dominated flavor and a touch of citrus. It finished with lots of roasted malts and a burnt toast bitterness. All in all it was a bit too malty for our tastes. 

 

Upon drinking her first sip of the Thrillseeker IPA, Ellen declared, "It offends me." I could see what she meant as it was aggressively hoppy with tons of grass and citrus character that was a bit shocking to the senses at first. However, as time passed the intense flavors and aromas grew on me until by the end I was longing for more. Ellen never really came around to enjoying the Thrillseeker and chose the County Line Rye because it didn't offend her. I chose the Thrillseeker not just because it has a mustachioed hop cone flying through a ring of fire on its label but because it turned me from a skeptic to a believer in the span of 22 oz. It is not a beer for the faint of heart and most definitely rides a fine line between offensive and awesome. Pick up a bottle next time you are in southern California just to see if your palate can handle it.  

 

Split decision: Ellen chose the County Line Rye, I chose the Thrillseeker

IPAs — 10 Barrel Hop Project

10 Barrel Batch #2

India Pale Ale
ABV 6.8%

10 Barrel Batch #37

Brown India Pale Ale
ABV 6.95%

10 Barrel Batch #91
Black India Pale Ale
ABV 7.3%

10 Barrel Batch #136
Wheat India Pale Ale
ABV 6.5% 

10 Barrel is really doing well catering to beer geeks like us. When I saw four of these generic looking bottles at my local bottle shop they certainly caught my eye. Upon further inspection I discovered that they were all part of the 10 Barrel Hop Project. They are normally sold in a mixed case and each one is a different style of IPA. It's a Hophead's dream and a great excuse to do a Bottle Battle.

All were tasted blind as usual.

Beer #1 (Batch #136, Wheat IPA): Golden yellow with very pungent floral/citrus hops. Flavor was very clean (bordering on cleaning solution) with tons of sweet citrus. The finish was surprisingly bitter — more than we were expecting.

Beer #2 (Batch #2, IPA): Hazy orange/yellow. More malty than #1 with piny hop notes. Flavor was heavy on the sweet malts with some fruitiness and the finish had a moderate citrus rind bitterness.

Beer #3 (Batch #37, Brown IPA): Reddish brown with lots of honey maltiness in the aroma as well as some pine and citrus. Flavor was fruity, floral and sweet like a dark honey. The finish was also quite bitter, once again more than we usually prefer.

Beer #4 (Batch #91, Black IPA): Pitch black with chocolate and coffee up front and some pine in the background. Tasted of cola, coffee and smoke. Finished smoky as well with a burnt coffee grounds bitterness.

Tasting blind wasn't really necessary as the colors pretty much gave them away. We both eliminated the Wheat IPA (Batch #136) as it had a bit of that chemical/cleaning solution quality that we both dislike. We also eliminated the Black IPA (Batch #91) because we felt the hops took too much of a backseat to the roasty chocolate malts. So it came down to the Brown IPA (Batch #37) vs. the regular IPA (Batch #2, rumored to be a ramped up version of their Apocalypse IPA).

Ellen ended up choosing the Brown IPA for it's excellent balance of sweet honey malts and piny hops. I went with the regular IPA because the more I drank it the more I wished I had another which is surely one of the best signs of a great beer.

Extra credit: Did we learn anything about hops from the Hop Project? Yes. All of the beers list the hops that were used in the kettle (during the boil, used to impart bitterness) and for dry hopping (hops added during or after the fermentation process, used to enhance the aroma). It was fun to see which hops we prefer for bittering as opposed to aroma. If you, like us, are interested in what qualities specific hop varieties add to your beer you are most certainly a beer geek. Embrace it.   

Split decision: Ellen chose the Brown IPA (Batch #37), I chose the regular IPA (Batch #2)

Imperial IPAs — Double Mountain vs. Midnight Sun

Double Mountain
Molten Lava Imperial IPA
ABV 9%

Midnight Sun
Obliteration IX Double IPA

ABV 8%

We got both of these while roaming the isles at the epic beer emporium in Portland, John's Marketplace. If you like beer and you're in SW Portland you need to go there. Just sayin'. Midnight Sun is from Anchorage, Alaska and Double Mountain is from Hood River, Oregon. We battled them blind as usual.

Beer #1 (Midnight Sun) was a hazy brownish orange with lots of piny hops and honey malts on the nose. The flavor was a mix of brown sugar and piny hop notes. The finish was mild and grassy with a mellow bitterness.

Beer #2 (Double Mountain) was hazy and golden with a big white head. The aroma was dominated by floral and citrus hops with a slight funkiness as well. The flavor was a nice balance of sweet and citrus and the finish was also citrusy with a mellow bitterness. 

This was a tough one. Usually with Imperial IPAs one of the two bottles just doesn't appeal to us. These two bottles, however, were in tune with our taste buds. They both showed exceptional balance which is not easy to do with this style of beer. We've had many Imperial IPAs that were either syrupy sweet or massively bitter, neither of which is very pleasant. In the end we both ended up going with the Double Mountain Molten Lava simply because at that particular moment on that particular day the floral/citrus hop combo was just slightly more appealing than the piny/grassy hops. We really could have flipped a coin though — both are excellent, easy drinking and well-made beers. Take your pick and enjoy!

Unanimous Decision: Double Mountain Molten Lava Imperial IPA

Extra Pale Ales — Uinta Brewing vs. Alesmith Brewing

Uinta Wyld
Extra Pale Ale
ABV 4%

Alesmith

Extra Pale Ale

ABV 5.25%

Extra Pale Ale, huh? So it's more than a Pale Ale, but not quite an IPA? Beer name variations are always a good reason for a Bottle Battle. Beers were tasted blind as usual. 

Beer #1 was hazy golden with a huge white head. It had some fruity hops in the nose and some grassy, tart aromas as well. The body was rich and almost creamy while the flavor was dominated by tart and yeasty notes. The finish was also quite yeasty with not much bitterness.

Beer #2 was clear golden yellow and featured aromas of grass, grain and citrus. The flavor was crisp and clean with a mild citrus/pineapple hop presence. It finished with more grassy flavors and mild grapefruity bitterness.

#1 was the Uinta Wylde. We suspect something was wrong with it. The yeasty character was bizarre. I even went so far as to guess that the name might have something to do with it being fermented with some wild (wylde) yeasts. I was wrong. It's part of their certified organic line of beers and according to their website it is supposed to be a pretty straight forward hoppy pale. So, it's quite possible we got a bottle that was stored improperly or something. Either way, it was the obvious loser.

The Alesmith beer on the other hand was a very nice, hoppy, sessionable pale ale. We highly recommend you pop a bottle when the weather warms up. 

In regards to the Extra Pale Ale moniker, both these beers seemed to actually be lighter in body and lower in alcohol than many standard pales ales we've tried. So in the grand hierarchy of hoppy beers these would fall somewhere below a standard pale ale putting them in the same general area as India Session Ales. Perhaps the "Extra" stands for extra sessionable? More marketing nonsense.         

      

Unanimous Decision: Alesmith Extra Pale Ale

Wheat IPAs — Pyramid vs. Shock Top

Pyramid
Wheaten IPA
ABV 6.5%

Shock Top

Wheat IPA

ABV 5.8%

It's been interesting to watch the big breweries try to infiltrate the craft beer market. Blue Moon Belgian White (brewed by MillerCoors) is perhaps the most popular, offering a sweeter and more complex option to those who are looking to upgrade from the watery tastelessness of canned macrobrew. These new Wheat IPAs appear to be an attempt by Pyramid (not quite a macrobrewery, but a huge microbrewery) and Anheuser-Busch (brewer of Shock Top) to grab a share of this market. We're always game to try a new IPA style so the battle was on.

The Pyramid was brownish-orange with an earthy, roasty and slightly soapy aroma. The flavor was clean and malty but mostly devoid of any significant hop presence. The finish was a bit soapy as well with just a touch of bitterness. 

The Shock Top was reddish-orange and hazy. It had a much sweeter aroma with some spice, citrus and floral notes. The flavor was also mostly sweet and malty with a prevalent spiciness (cinnamon, coriander, clove). Once again we had trouble detecting any hops. Honestly it tasted more like a spiced winter beer than an IPA (we found out later that it's brewed with citrus peel and coriander). 

As we'd feared these beers are not made for people who like craft brewed IPAs. Having detected very little hop presence in either beer we weren't exactly sure what qualified them as IPAs aside from the acronym on the label. And since the addition of wheat in the grain bill of a beer is unlikely to produce any noticeable flavors or aromas, the use of "wheat" on the label is probably nothing more than an attempt to capitalize on the success of Blue Moon's Belgian White (a wheat beer) and Widmer's Hefeweizen (also a wheat beer). Still, these are both a huge step up in flavor from macrobrews so if they can serve as a gateway beer to budding new palates then that's a good thing.

In regards to the battle it wasn't easy to choose. If we based it solely on style guidelines the Pyramid was the winner hands down since it came closest to actually being an IPA. However, if we based it purely on taste Ellen stuck with the Pyramid while I thought the Shock Top was tastier. Why they didn't just call it a Spiced Wheat Beer we'll never know. I guess we can blame it on the marketers.    

      

Split Decision: Ellen chose Pyramid, I chose Shock Top.