North Peak Diabolical

Happy IPA Day! While we were perusing one of our favorite beer stores, we realized that we haven't reviewed any North Peak brews, and we love them! This was the first brew from North Peak that we had, two or three years ago, when they first started being distributed to Ohio. We've loved every brew we've had from them, so when we saw this, the planets aligned, the skies opened, and here we are.

North Peak is out of Traverse City, Michigan. This is their IPA, a fantastic gateway IPA that has turned many a hop-averse person into a hophead. It's 6.66% ABV and 66.6 IBUs -- hence, diabolical. Have we mentioned that this is right up our dark and evil alley?

This pours a hazy, darkish orange with a bit of off-white head. The aroma is warm citrus and pine notes. Damn, Nathan is burning some no-bake cookies, so now that's all I can smell... Taking a sip, I am blasted in the face with pine, caramel from the malts, there's some orange, a hint of mango... ohhh, this is a wonderful way to celebrate IPA Day! It's well-balanced, yet perfectly hoppy. It finishes pleasantly sweet, with nothing really discernible in the aftertaste. It's a little resinous in the mouth afterwards, but it's not appalling. I could drink this all day long. The pine note throughout the taste makes me think of Traverse City, a beautiful town in northern Michigan. It's a very well-done brew.

Oh man, now the entire house smells of wonderful no-bake cookies (he's claiming it was sugar spilled directly on the burner). That's a lovely smell that we're going to have to hide from my kid in the morning. He would eat the entire batch, and we're attending a wedding reception with a dessert potluck. Best yet, the bride is vegan, so these are vegan no-bakes. I'm downing the rest of this pint in the thought of vegan baking (I'm undertaking a vegan version of my mom's fruit crisp).

4.7/5 caps

-Jennie

It was sugar spilled on the side/bottom of the pan while I was pouring the ingredients into the measuring cup to put into the pan. Giant lump of sugar landed in cup and blasted sugar all over the counter, including side of pan. While moving the pan around (adding other ingredients), sugar got onto the bottom. So, no, I was not making shit up, and yes, I feel dirty making vegan cookies without beer and or bacon.

So, mentioning beer, Hoppy IPA Day. With that being said, it's time to let go of the hilarity of things that happened at work and get down to brass tacks of the task at hand. Beer. Oh, sweet Hopsus. Why is it only one day a year we give solid praise to you? If you haven't realized by now, we're clearly hop heads (roughly 1/3 of our reviews being a variety of IPA, not including the hoppy reds, wheats, or pale ales). So, onto the review. Roughly a half hour after being poured, finishing cookies and Jazzy scratching my back as she sleepily fell off the chair, we're onto the review.

This pours a gorgeous orangey color with decent amount of off white head. This head lingers around some, even after 30 minutes. The aroma on this is citrus, pine and caramel. Smells so tasty. The taste on this takes me back to hot summer days a couple years ago, introducing people to this and Flying Dog's Doggie Style, while sitting out on the patio of the bar. There's a maltiness to this initial taste, almost caramel, right before some pine notes dig their ripping talons into your taste buds, the pine fades and leads into some citrus (orange mostly) and tropical notes before riding out on a smooth orange-esque note. There's still decent carbonation at this point with a decent resin that leaves the love of Hopsus on this glorious day.

4.75/5 caps

-Nathan-