IPAs — Phat Matt's vs. Crazy Mountain

Phat Matt's IPA

ABV 7%

Crazy Mountain
Hookiebobb IPA 
ABV 6.7%

While combing over the beer shelves recently a bizarre label featuring an image of an elephant peeking out of a tangle of hop bines caught my eye. Turns out it is from Crazy Mountain Brewing, a brewery out of Vail Colorado that we've never seen in these parts before. I chose to pit it against a bottle from Oregon brewery, Phatt Matt's, whose labels are not nearly as intriguing. Beers were tasted blind as usual.

Beer #1 (Phat Matt's IPA) was a clear reddish orange with a very nice tropical fruit aroma. The flavor was bready with lots of sweet fruits and the finish was moderately bitter.

Beer #2 (Hookiebobb IPA) was a hazy brownish orange and featured a complex nose of earth, pine, ash and a bit of cat pee. The flavor was very herbal and savory with some citrus in the finish that left a harshly bitter aftertaste.

As we've discussed many times before, making a good IPA is all about getting a good balance of malt to hops. Both of these leaned a bit too much on the malty side for our tastes. In comparing the two, Ellen immediately preferred the Phatt Matt's while I waffled for a bit before finally choosing Matt's as well. The Hookiebobb was interesting at first but got stranger and stranger as it warmed up and the herbal savoriness just turned out to be too prevalent. Congrats to Phatt Matt's on wining the battle — here's hoping they have enough time in between brewing batches of beer to upgrade those labels!

Unanimous decision: Phatt Matt's IPA

Oaked Beers — Stone vs. Widmer

Stone Oaked

Arrogant Bastard

(Ale Aged with American Oak Wood Chips)

ABV 7.2%

Widmer

Downward Spiral

(Imperial India Style Pale Lager Aged on Oak Spirals)

ABV 9%

All hail oak! From wine and beer to spirits and cocktails, oak has been imparting wonderful richness and complexity to many of our favorite beverages. With my parents in town I invited my dad to help me out with a battle featuring two beers that have spent some time with wood. Beers were tasted blind as usual.

Beer #1 (Widmer Downward Spiral) was a clear orangish gold with clean, piny hop notes in the nose along with some floral orange blossom. The flavor was sweet, malty and full-bodied with some buttery flavors coming out as it warmed. Finish had two levels, offering a nice orange rind bitterness at first that eventually gave way to a rather harsh burnt wood bitterness.

Beer #2 (Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard) was quite a bit darker with a reddish brown color. The aroma featured chocolate, herbs and cedar. The flavor was mostly bitter, dark chocolate and the finish featured an aggressive bitterness with some light vanilla notes to go along with burnt toast and charcoal.

It was an evenly matched battle, albeit featuring two beers that were not my favorites. Neither beer seemed to offer much in the way of oak character aside from possibly some enhanced bitterness and tannins. Ellen (despite not being a full participant in the battle), took a whiff and a sip and pointed out the butteriness in the Widmer. This is likely the result of some diacytl which is commonly found in beer, but in large amounts can dominate a beer in a negative way. In my many tastings with friends and family I've discovered that some people are far more sensitive to diacytl than others. We have another bottle, so I'm curious to see if we detect butter in that one as well.

In the end, as is often the case with fathers and sons, our opinions diverged. My dad really liked the Widmer Downward Spiral and said it was something he'd gladly drink again. I liked the Widmer at first, but as it warmed I felt that the aroma and flavor changed from pine to floral to bizarre and buttery. To me, the Oaked Arrogant Bastard didn't seem as messy. It was very bold, a bit harsh and ultimately befitting of its name.  

Split decision: I chose the Arrogant Bastard, pops chose the Downward Spiral

Pumpkin Beers — Shipyard Brewing vs. New Belgium Brewing

Kennebunkport Brewing Company

(Shipyard Brewing)

Pumpkin Ale

ABV 4.7%

New Belgium Brewing

Pumpkick

ABV 6%

For this battle we again pulled something from the shelves of Trader Joes. Included in their crazy selection of pumpkin-flavored items this year was this Pumpkin Ale from Kennebunkport Brewing Company. A little internet sleuthing revealed that KBC beer is brewed for Trader Joe's by Shipyard Brewing in Portland, Maine. The Pumpkick is from the good people at New Belgium Brewing in Colorado which gives us a Colorado vs. Maine pumpkin showdown.

Beers were tasted blind as is our custom.

Beer #1 (KBC Pumpkin Ale) was a clear golden yellow. The aroma was very sweet with lots of pumpkin pie spices and some grain. Flavorwise it was very malt forward with sweet honey notes followed with all the pie spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves) and a bit of citrus. The finish was all pie spices and sweetness with just a touch of acidic citrus.

Beer #2 (Pumpkick) was a clear brownish orange. It had a slightly vegetal aroma that also featured a sweet, roasty, toasty maltiness. There was very little carbonation and perhaps partly due to that the flavors were muted and a bit dull, featuring roasted malts and light pie spices. The finish was a strange combination of spices that didn't seem to mesh well.

We both assumed that the Pumpkick would dominate this battle. As you can see, we were wrong. It's an ambitious beer — the bottle reveals that they added cranberry juice and lemongrass along with the expected pie spices in the brewing. While we appreciate the creativity, the experiment did not work for us. The strange finish was likely a result of the lemongrass trying to find a way to live in harmony with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. The sweet roasted malt backbone reminded us both of Fat Tire, making us wonder if Fat Tire or something similar was used as the base beer. All in all it just seemed messy.

 

The KBC Pumpkin ale was nothing to write home about but we both picked it anyway. It's a real typical mass-produced pumpkin beer with a light body and a heavy dose of pie spice — a good novelty beer but nothing real complex or exciting. We wouldn't buy either of these beers again, but don't let that steer you away from pumpkin beers in general. As we've experienced in past battles, pumpkin beers can be most excellent. Seek them out and drink them. It's a worthy pursuit.      

Unanimous decision: KBC Pumpkin Ale

IPAs — Fort George/Gigantic/Lompoc vs. Goose Island

Fort George/Gigantic/Lompoc
3-Way IPA 
ABV 6.69%

Goose Island IPA

ABV 5.9%

The two IPAs you see above come from vastly different backgrounds. The 3-Way is a collaboration beer from a trio of well-known Oregon craft breweries (Fort George in Astoria, Gigantic in Portland and Lompoc in Portland). The Goose Island hails from a seminal craft brewery in Chicago that was gobbled up a couple years ago by macro-beer behemoth, Anheuser Busch. So, it's three little guys vs. one really freaking huge guy. Exciting no? Let's see who wins.

Beers were tasted blind as is our custom.

Beer #1 (Goose Island IPA) was a clear orange/brown. The aroma was mostly malty in a floral honey sort of way. The flavor was also malty with a slight fruitiness and the finish had a mild citrusy hop bitterness.

Beer #2 (3-Way IPA) was a hazy pumpkin orange. The aroma was shockingly hoppy with huge notes of pine and cleaning solution (perhaps due to the pine). The flavor continued the hop assault with a huge resiny character followed by a long lasting, intense bitterness.

For two beers calling themselves IPA, these couldn't have been more different. The Goose Island was very one-dimensional and felt to us like it needed a bit more of a hop bite to balance the solid floral and fruity maltiness. It wasn't a bad beer, it just seemed... safe. Whether that is a result of being owned by AB or whether that is just how Goose Island has always interpreted IPA we can't say, but either way it's a beer that isn't doing much to stand out.

The 3-Way, on the other hand, seems to be continuing in the tried and true west coast tradition of hopping the holy crap out of everything. It was the obvious winner in this fight but it's not for the faint of heart. If you're the type of beer drinker that likes hop aroma to be something akin to smelling salts then this is the beer for you. We enjoyed it quite a bit but you probably won't see us swigging a 4-pack anytime soon. It seems just right for a special occasion IPA though.   

Unanimous decision: 3-Way IPA

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