Two Brothers Outlaw

We did some crawling along Indianola tonight in search of good beer. We scored a couple, and missed out on one, but we decided it was a growler kind of night. If you haven't been to Savor Growl (at the corner of Weber and Indianola), they have 60 different taps from which you can take 64 ounces or so of fresh draft beer home (that's almost a six-pack's worth of volume). It's a pretty fucking awesome concept.

I love that growlers have hit hard in Columbus this year.

When we arrived home, I learned of James Gandolfini passing. Not only does "The Sopranos" still rank among my favorite television shows, but he's such a great, recognizable actor. He's been in seemingly everything. One of my favorite roles of his is the film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. So tonight, Tony Soprano, Wild Thing Carol, CIA director in Zero Dark Thirty and so many other roles, we raise a toast to you. Thank you for entertaining us for so many years.

It's also National Martini Day. My next glass from the growler will be served in a martini glass. Who knew?  Mock me if you will for my glass of choice, but martinis are really good. I could go for, well, several after today.

Speaking of beer and a growler, let's get back to this. We settled on Two Brothers Outlaw, which is an IPA from a great brewery out of Illinois. We first encountered this last summer in a can. It was wonderful. Hopefully it's just as good on tap. It pours a medium amber color with a smallish white head that doesn't stick around. The aroma is faint. Really faint. Like I'm wondering if my nose is shot from allergies and dulled because I've already had a pint of this. It's a tad lemony, I suppose, but that's about all I'm getting from the martini glass. The taste, however, is much better. It starts out almost with a hint of brown sugar, then almost immediately fades to grapefruit and then to lemon. The brown sugar note underpins all of the citrus. Long after the taste has eased down your throat, there's a note of pine that comes through. It's a solid IPA... not quite as good as I recalled, but still quite tasty.

And there's the problem with drinking beer from a martini glass: it disappears quickly and requires frequent refills.

Back to the beer. There's not much more to add. It's well carbonated and fairly bubbly on the tongue.

With that, I'll turn it over to my esteemed partner-in-crime and let him tell you more. I'm going to let my ADD pick between watching a very crazy hockey game and completing a painting that was due, well, today. I'll probably do both.

4.55/5 caps

-Jennie

Well, after entering my second pint of this (and a Burger Classic or two), and playing Words With Friends and The Simpsons Tapped Out, while Jennie decided to take over an hour on this review/fiddling around on Facebook, the font for an art project, and random links about James Gandolfini, I've had time to ponder this beer more and more with each slow sip.

This is room temp now, as the growler has sat out on the counter for roughly 2 hours now. The color is how she described, a medium amber. There's not much head that's left now, as it dissipates quickly, but from memory, it's a gorgeous white that sits perfectly on top of this elixir of Hopsus. And this cat better leave my vintage acoustic alone before I whip her around by her tail (NOTE: I would never harm an animal. Especially not a cat, and especially not MY cat, and especially not MY shoulder cat). But I seem to be getting side tracked as she is contemplating climbing it to get onto the shelves of the corner hutch. I need to get back on track somehow. Summon my inner hop. YYYUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMM. Okay, so after a little meditation, I am now focused to where only the threat of the dreaded breaking the seal can stop me. Damn it... Why am I focusing on that now...

After a short bathroom break, I continue on with this review. The aroma of this is faint, as She-Who-Drags-Her-Feet mentioned, so faint to where I cannot pick up notes of really anything. The flavor makes up for the lack of aroma. Caramel tones up front with a nice chaser of grapefruit with some bitter citrus zest. The bitter zest and grapefruit do battle of epic proportions on your taste buds, each having the upper hand, but falling shortly after to the other. Meanwhile, each one is growing weaker as the battle continues, until the flavor fades away and there is no clear winner. 60 IBUs, 6.3% ABV, medium body, smooth mouthfeel with some resiny tones toward the finish.  I think it's slightly better in cans, but at the same point, still a damn good IPA. No idea on the hop strains, as Two Brother's website is rather vague. The Blackhawks have won to tie up the series in an epic game four ending in OT 6-5.


4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-