An IPA a Day #28

It's here! International IPA Day is upon us!
My last beer in this series is again one I helped brew. The first time I went to Pontypridd I was hoping to brew a hop monster. We didn't fail either with a slight haze, deep tawny colour and a Pacific Gem aroma to die for this was my first proper religious experience.
As I've said before I had to go and sit down on my own and absorb it. After that I got the enjoyment of watching other people enjoying something that you worked so hard to create, it really is a very gratifying experience.
Over the next 18 months - 2 years I've gone back to Pontypridd a lot and the Otley guys and I have worked on the recipe of the Motley Brew, we've got to the point where we're finally really happy with the recipe and there will be no more tinkering.

Motley Mark 1

I'm not going to give you any tasting notes, I'm going to say get your arse down to The Rake and taste it for yourself.

Happy IPA day everybody - Don't forget the Hashtag #IPADay today!

An IPA a Day #27

Penultimate day and we'll I'm doing some self congratulation here. I've been lucky enough to brew with Kernel Brewery twice now and we've managed to create a beer that won't stop selling.
The original recipe was based on 21st Amendment's Back in Black IPA, and was shared with Phil Lowry, then of Saints & Sinners brewery who produced, Military Intelligence, the oxymoronic IPA.

Evin and I got the recipe from Phil and the rest as they say, is history!
I've written about it a couple of dozen times and it's a beer that Evin and the rest of the Kernel gang can't brew fast enough.
Kernel India Pale Ale Black is it's name and hops is it's game, it's an IPA that we used Carafa malt with to give it its colour and I happen to think it's a fantastic beer.

International IPA day tomorrow, bet you can't guess what I'm going to end on.....Night.

An IPA a Day #26

Quick one today as I'm off to GBBF trade session in a minute. Back to Russian River and Pliny The Elder's nephew, Pliny The Younger!
It's a triple/imperial IPA and usually gets beer geeks cumming in their pants. It's a once a year, small batch release beer that I have only been lucky enough to try once.
What a great beer.
I own a Pliny the Younger shirt, which I now wish I was wearing and it kinda says it all on the back really.

Wonderful things, hops.

Oh, and if you're wondering, it's released in the spring, now form an orderly queue.

An IPA a Day #25

This beer really brings back some of the best memories of my life and it's the beer that brought me onto IPA's and spicy food matching with a chicken dish to die for and an IPA that I'd happily kill for.
The dish was a spicy, jerk style chicken dish at the 21st Amendment brew pub in San Francisco which I'm sure you're all bored of hearing me bang on about and the beer was Brew Free or Die IPA.

The Brew Free or Die was my beer of choice when I happily wandered into 21st Amendment on honeymoon lats year.
It's one of those beers which at around 7% abv is dangerously drinkable, especially if you're sitting at the bar and don't notice your legs going numb!

My blog about this is on this link and as it's GBBF week and I'm too busy to go through them again.

All I can really say is if you ever get over there go and order the beer and the chicken and enjoy.

Trade day tomorrow so don't expect me to be compus. Have fun everyone!

An IPA a Day #24

Viven Imperial IPA is not something I drink a lot of, but I'd like to. I've only been lucky enough to have had this beer a couple of times but it's a beer that has class in a glass written all over it.
The packaging might not be cool by recent standards but when a beer is this good, who cares?

Pic from Beermerchants.wordpress.com

Indeed when I look at the label it's one that just looks 'classic' and it immediately makes me think of sitting outside a Belgian beer cafe in the sun, even though I've never done that.

So what is this masterpiece like?

Well, when you pour it into the glass you get a lovely copper coloured beer and the aroma gives you complex flashes of pine, orange, grapefruit and peach! 

It's as complex in the mouth as it is on the nose with the some sweet citrus at the front giving way to the piney resinous bitterness that makes the best IPA's as good as they are! For all the complex flavours and aroma's going on in this beer along with the 8% abv it's still a totally drinkable and very balanced beer. You can get it from beermerchants.com and I recommend that you try this one.

An IPA a Day #23

5 days to go and we're off back up to Fraserbrough and the gruesome twosome at BrewDog. I've gone over Punk IPA already in this series and Hardcore IPA won't be making an appearance so what beer is in between the two?

Chaos Theory.
Here's a brief run down of the beer

Look : Deep orange almost copper with a slight haze to it.

Aroma : there's Orange, there's also a really nice earthiness and a sweetness, a bit like a bag of Skittles.

Taste profile : The Nelson Sauvin hop is the most prevalent of this balanced beer and so there's gooseberry, a bit of spicy pepper and grass. All in all a top beer and one that Brewdog should make ALL the time.

An IPA a Day #22

Six days to go until International IPA day and we're getting into the big hitters now. Sooner or later it would have come to this one, I have lost count of the amount of bottles I have consumed in the last three years. Lots anyway.
Regular readers of R.A.B will probably have guessed what it is.
At a not inconsiderable 5.9% abv this beer is very nicely balanced. At the point of writing this it has 1191 ratings and a score of 96 on Ratebeer.
It goes really well with Chicken, Pork, curries, Gouda & blue cheese - well everything really.
It won gold medals at the World Beer Cup and The Great American Beer Festival - 10 years apart those awards...
The Brewmaster at the brewery recently left, and is now pursuing other interests(cider), good on him too, he's done an amazing job in the last 23 years or so. Thank you sir...Oh and he's also one of the nicest blokes on the planet.
Have you guessed what the beer is yet? Well if you haven't let me give you some tasting notes...

Colour : Light copper or Bourbon coloured.

Nose : Lots of fruit mainly citrus fruit like lime & orange and floral although not being a florist I couldn't tell you which.

Taste : Lots of citrus, lime, lemon, orange or mandarin, and a biscuity dryness which just makes the beer all the more..er moreish.

Ladies and Gentlemen, if you haven't already guessed, I give you Goose Island I.P.A. (cue applause)

Speaks for itself.

An IPA a Day #21

Next in my lead up to International IPA day on August 4th(1 week to go folks!) is another Belgian beer and I have to say.....Wow!

Back in the sands of time, at the turn of this century a four newly qualified brewery technicians straight out of KaHo St. Lieven, the best known brewing school in Gent, were finding it increasingly obvious that they'd have a hard time getting brewmaster jobs in the Belgian beer world and decided that they should use their own enthusiasm and efforts to create the Muskateers Brewing Co.

After that they needed a name for the beers they were creating and eventually the agreed on Troubador. You can read more about the history of the brewery here.

The Troubador Magma is a great Belgian IPA because it has the body of a triple but what gives it the big IPA style is of course the hops! The massive fruity aroma come from the dry hopping process with American hops which are so popular today! It's a beer of incredible balance and flavour and I'm trying to get more for The Rake! Love it!

An IPA a Day #20

To Chico we go now and the extremely popular Sierra Nevada Brewing Co and probably my favourite of their beers, Torpedo Extra IPA.
I've written about this on more than one occasion, but I'm not sure that multiple drunk diary entries really count.
For me the greatness of this beer all starts with the colour of the label, it's a darker, more mysterious than the boring old Pale Ale label that everyone knows so well and orders without even thinking. Don't get me wrong I think the Pale Ale is still a great beer but the Torpedo is phenomenal!

It's 7.2% and as you can see it's a beautiful light tawny red and when you stick your nose in the glass you get a mental blast of hoppy Pineapple, Mandarin and Pine, when you taste it there's so much bitterness up front that it almost drowns everything else out. After the second or third sip though your taste buds are working overtime and really getting the citrus and a slight malty sweetness in the middle and the citrus bitterness hits you on the arse at the end!
Such a great beer! I can't recommend this enough, get some down ya!!

An IPA a Day #19

21st Amendment is a brewpub in San Fransico which is doing some spectacular beers. Founded in 2000 by Shaun O'Sullivan and Nico Freccia in the shadow of the San Francisco Giants stadium, it has eight rotating taps of top quality craft brews and a restuarant that serves fantastic food! This is the place where I discovered the spicy food and IPA pairing which I enjoy so much.

We're down to my top ten IPA's in the lead up to International IPA Day and the inspiration for two London beers, Kernel Black IPA and Military Intelligence, Back in Black IPA.

I'm lucky enough to have amazing friends who bring me amazing beers from across the pond every now and then and this was one such beer. I've had it twice now, first brought back by my friends Matt and Karen and another can by Mark Dredge. I blogged about the beer and at the risk of being a repetative bore I'll give you the aromas and flavours I got from this.

Aroma and taste : Liquorice, Orange and Mango were the most prevalent in both the taste and aroma and had a dark chocolate bitterness to it aswell.
What more can I say? The branding is some of the coolest I have ever seen and the people who run the brewpub in San Francisco are great, what's not to like?

An IPA a Day #18

Off to Maryland for the last IPA before my top 10 in my lead up to International IPA Day and Flying Dog Brewery, based in Frederick.

You'll recognise the Flying Dog bottles on the shelves or in the fridges of your shops and bars by the distinctive label designs. Designed by Ralph Steadman the art work is that of a demented genius(Flying Dog's words, not mine) and it has really brought the flying dog brand to life so that not only do you get a fantastic beer, you also get a work of art on the bottle to take home should you so wish.
The Snake Dog IPA is the hop monster from Flying Dog, at 15 Plato (7.1% abv) it's 60 IBU's give it the perfect amount of bitterness for a beer that strength. Brewed with Warrior and Columbus hops there's a big Grapefruity kind of character to this beer which also is nicely balanced with a caramel maltiness.
Flying Dog also share my opinion that big hoppy IPA's deserve a wonderfully spicy meal to pair them with and this beer will go really well with a spicy Thai or Mexican dish or something with lots of Wasabi. Who am I to argue, I just say, get it down ya!
Flying Dog Brewmaster Matt Brophy was also one of the first to sign The Rake's wall too, one Sunday before we started opening on them!
The Brewery's motto is "Good people drink good beer" Indeed they do.

An IPA a Day #17

From Santa Rosa to Escondido for the second time and Stone IPA. It's no Ruination but it's still a damn fine beer and one that I'm always happy to see whether it's on draught or in bottle.

It's 6.9% and as is usual for a west coast IPA it's highly hopped and bloody drinkable!

Stone describe the beer like this...

Light medium malt character with a heavy dose of over the top hops! Two full weeks of dry hopping give this beer its abundant hop aroma and crisp hop flavour.

Personally I would describe it like this : Lovely dark golden colour, and has a massive fruity nose with orange, pineapple and a bit of caramel malt too.
It's hop character that is nice and prominent is all about the clean citrus flavours which made it moreish to the extreme.

Is is any wonder why Greg Koch wears t-shirts with his face on them? The beers rock as much as Brewmaster Mitch Steele's band!

An IPA a Day #16

Day sixteen and we're onto one of my favourite all time beers. Shared a spoog bottle with Boggle on Thursday and have had a bottle sitting in the fridge for a few days now. Time to crack it open.

Pic courtesy of beerreviews.co.uk 

Pliny the Elder(actual name Gaius Plinius Secundus) was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher who died on August 25th AD 79. Now thankfully the beer I have in front of me isn't anywhere near that old, in fact it was only bottled at Russian River on 7th July 2011, not bad is it, from brewery to glass in 16 days, it's not what you know folks, it's who you know!

The Beer
It pours a delicious orange marmalade colour and has plenty of carbonation. The aroma is full of pine, some nectarine and a bit of malty Neapolitan ice cream on the finish.
On the palate you get some chocolatey maltiness and piney bitterness of the hops and that lovely piney resinous slickness that coats the mouth and throat.
I love this beer, I love Double IPA's and especially this multi award winning 8% classic!

An IPA a Day #15

Going oop north to West Yorkshire for todays offering to the IPA gods and these guys are the only British brewery to be sponsoring the International IPA Day.
Summer Wine Brewery have produced 4 IPA's which will be available over GBBF week at The Rake and this is the best known of them. Diablo is a 6% IPA and it's devilishly good (see wot I did there?).

The Beer
It's a golden beer, which I suppose is quite rare for an IPA, it's got a really lemony nose to it and the citrus really comes through in the mouth too along with some passionfruit and it has a lingering resinous finish.
These guys are making some of the most exciting beers in the country at the moment and if you come across them I heartily recommend you give them a try.

An IPA a Day #14

My next IPA is Great Divide's Titan IPA and the name is in the title for this one as it's as big as it's name!

Their website blurb is as follows :

Titan IPA is a big, aggressively hopped India Pale Ale brewed for hop disciples. It starts out with piney hop aromas and citrus hop flavors, and finishes with a nice rich, malty sweetness that is balanced with crisp hop bitterness.  7.1% ABV


There's barely any need for me to continue, it's a great beer made by great people and they clearly know what they're talking about when they go for their food pairings too, they suggest, grilled Halibut, Thai curry or Cheeses. I've always said that IPA's and big flavoured food goes together, clearly I'm right! ;-)

Anyway, this beer was one of the first big IPA's I'd ever tasted and it's one that I revisit regularly. Great Beer!

An IPA a Day #13

Off to California (I wish) for my next IPA in the series. This one is a top bear, sorry beer and is a favourite of Mark Dredge.

Bear Republic Racer 5 is a fantastic beer and I was lucky enough to have it on draught at The Rake a year or so ago, very good it was too!
Made with four of the 'C' Hops, Chinook, Cascade, Columbus & Centennial there's a massive pine and tropical fruit character to the beer.
Pouring a deep, hazy amber, it looks amazing, and tastes it too, it's easy to understand why this beer is so popular everywhere it's found.
With the amount of tropical fruit on the nose and on the palate, even at 7% abv it could still almost be a so called 'breakthrough' or 'gateway' beer, much more so than any of the so-called girlie beers that the big boys want to push on unsuspecting prospective drinkers!
The branding is as excellent as the beers and if you find them over here, grab with both hands and don't let go until the bottle is empty!

An IPA a Day #12

Of to Derbyshire today in the lead up to International IPA day. Thonrbridge Brewery have had names such as Martin Dickie(now of Brewdog infamy) and Kelly Ryan(previously mentioned secretive Kiwi) working at the brewery. They've both moved on to spread the craft beer love and Thornbridge now have Dom Driscoll(formerly Marble), Matthew Clarke and current Beer Writers Brewer of the Year, Stefano Cossi creating some of the most exciting beers in the country.
Thornbridge Jaipur was one of the first, if not the first beer that was brewed and it's still going strong today! With the iconic statuesque Thornbridge lady on the pumpclips and the bottles they are quite easily recognisable.
Tasting notes are all about the citrus, ain't that a surprise! It starts really quite mellow and light but as it works on the palate it ends up being a bit of a bitter explosion with a bit of lingering honey and will give any big IPA a run for it's money.
Really like this beer, so glad it's back at The Rake!

An IPA a Day #11

We jump the pond again with the next beer in my lead up to International IPA day on 4th August. This time we get as far as Fort Collins, Colorado and the Odell Brewery. Doug, Wynne and Corkie Odell set up the brewery in 1989 and instantly set about educating their customers about craft beer. In those days there was only one other craft brewery in Colorado and so they had pretty much the whole market to win over.
Win they did though and today they brew 45,000 brewers barrels a year in a space that's 45,000 square feet, imagine that, a barrel per square foot!
I've been fortunate enough to have met Doug on a couple of occasions now and he's as passionate about making great craft beer as I am about drinking it!
Odells IPA, whilst not my absolute favourite of Dougs beers is one of the best around, at 7% and 60 IBU's they've taken the traditional English style IPA and made it more flavourful and a lot bolder. They've used new varieties of aromatic American hops to give the beer more character and that excellent hop profile you get from the nose and the taste.

An IPA a day #10

Day 10 and it's back stateside and I have a biggie for ya! He'Brew Lenny's Bittersweet RIPA is next on the build up to International IPA day.

This 10% Monster was created to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Lenny Bruce. This is a rye based double IPA and when we were lucky enough to get some at The Rake 18 months ago, I think I drank most of it! In fact I remember getting Oz Clarke absolutely blotto on it too before a press release of Oz and James big Wine Adventure. Ooops.
Anyway this is made with nine different malts and seven different hops! He'Brew claim this is the most radical Jewish tribute beer ever created and who could argue? Not me.
Tasting notes are in the name of this monster, bittersweet, for a 10% beer this is remarkably (un)balanced. It's massive hops(surprise!) over massive malts and both fight your tastebuds for dominance with the hops just winning out.
It pours a deep orange colour and there are aroma of Citrus fruits, Caramel and Rye malt. Mouthfeel is like a boozy oil slick. Its sweet caramel is replaced by the Grapefruity, piney bitterness of all the hops and a boozy warmth as it goes down. All in all a top beer.
Dear Schmaltz Brewing, please send more beer.

An IPA a Day #9

Day nine and it's over to New Zealand to continue my lead up to the first International IPA day. I want this beer in the UK but I doubt I'll ever see it. Luke Nicholas started the Epic Brewery in 2006 and is almost single handedly bringing the craft beer to the masses in New Zealand. I say almost single handed because he recently 'stole' Kelly Ryan back from us(we will never forgive you Luke).

Together they are making some fantastic beers, I know this because I am lucky enough to have tasted some of them even though they don't export to the UK.
Hop Zombie is their latest double IPA and I want it over here! It uses four different hops, two US and two NZ when I asked Kelly Ryan which ones he replied "really yummy ones!" Bloody secretive Kiwis!
This is one beer that I really want to try now, and I'm having to take my tasting notes from the Epic Beer Website.
Tasting notes: 
The Hop Zombie has huge tropical fruit characters on the nose, mango, guava, and a hint of ripe raspberry, which continue in the mouth, with a rich sweetness and mouth-coating hop character and bitterness.
At a hefty 8.5% it's one to enjoy with meals as well as drink on it's own. According to Epic it could easily replace a dessert wine and compliments strong cheeses really well.
So here's the question for Luke and Kelly....When do we get to have some?