Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi

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I don't know about you, but I am doing a happy dance that there are only two days left in this god-forsaken year. You are probably sick of me bitching about it, but hey, I just caught a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. 2015, I'm looking at you, and you are one sexy bitch.  My mood is so sullen about this entire fucking year that I think something as bitter as an IPA would be perfect. The fact that we picked this up on our last trip to Peoria during my father's memorial service trip makes it an even better send-off to the suckfest that was 2014. With the new year will come a renewed attitude, I promise as solemnly as a goddamn Girl Scout.

Cheers to the last two days of 2014! Now, onto the beer.

This pours a lovely orange color with about the same amount of white head that is pictured. The aroma on this is a fresh blast of pine and grapefruit with just a hint of caramel sweetness. The flavor is about the same, along with some other tropical fruit flavors in the middle to mellow it out and woo the tastebuds, then the finish on this... oh, the finish on this. Dry, lovely, biting pine and grapefruit predominate the end of this and it's a wonderfully bitter finish. It is a medium-bodied beer and with 68 IBUs and 6.8% ABV, I'm very happy with this. If we could get this in Ohio, it might become part of my regular rotation of beers.

Ah, my mood is already lifting as that light at the end of the tunnel becomes more of a gleam. Do you remember the Keystone beer gimmick advertising "bitter beer face"? This will probably give you that, but in a good way. My cheeks are a tad puckered from the finish on this, and now they are puckered from smiling while drinking this. I never minded bitter beer face anyway, although I most certainly mind Keystone beer. It's revolting. This is pretty much the opposite of that. Yeah... hoppy, happy bitter beer face.

4.6/5 caps

-Jennie

We needed to round out this year with something that leaves at least one good note. We've eyeballed this every time we've seen it, and always failed to pick it up. We'd later see constant postings on Facebook about how much people are enjoying it, giving us buyer's remorse. Well, not this time, 2014. You've sucked enough out of our lives. The time has come to get this 6.8% ABV, 68 IBU long awaited IPA on my palate.

The label makes me think of Reservoir Dogs. Brilliant movie. The beer itself is a golden amber color, still with a decent amount of carbonation after sitting for roughly an hour. The aroma on this is therapeutic. pine, grapefruit, citrus and caramel; none of which overwhelm the others, just gel perfectly together in a harmonious coexistence that could  likely solve all the wars and hatred among humans (if only somehow we could all sniff this at the same time). I talk about this calming that washes over me as it was needed today at work (where Slipknot and Mushroomhead weren't heavy and loud enough to deal with the end of the year in shipping... note- if you've read this far- AVOID FACTORY JOBS). Regardless.... Beer.

The flavor on this is what's in the nose. A nice harmonious balance of grapefruit, pine, citrus and caramel with an additional tropical juiciness toward the middle before a rush of headbanging to "Duality" by Slipknot and bitterness washes over the tastebuds. Well... Maybe you won't be headbanging to "Duality" (maybe you're more of a "People = Shit" person), but when the bitterness comes crashing into the party- it definitely starts a most pit on your tongue, leaving a dry yet resinous finish after slam dancing for a solid 15 seconds. This is what I expect the finish of an IPA to be. Before I start rocking out too much and forget that I'm typing a beer review, I should finish (HA! That's what she said).

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

Food pairing: A well-smoked pork shoulder
Cheese pairing: Cotswold (Double Gloucester with dried onions and chives)
Music pairing: Wallflowers "One Headlight" (despite the moshing and metal references)

Destihl Hoperation Overload

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We picked this up on the way back to Ohio after The Phil's memorial service in Peoria, Illinois. It's been a rough year with deaths, for most people I know, but we have the solution, ladies and gentlemen. Craft Beer helps take away some pain.

We were mixing 6 packs and decided to get a 4 or 6 pack of an IPA to drink/later review once we completed the long 7 hour drive back to Columbus, Ohio. We stumbled upon this, a local to Illinois brew, not far from Peoria. We were intrigued by the sign at Friar Tucks saying it won bronze in the World Beer Championship. Ok, beer, Ohio bound you are.

9.6 % ABV, 85 IBUs seemed like the perfect treat around midnight after a 7 hour drive across 3 states. It's been many beers ago (and much turmoil), so let's see how it stacks up now.

This pours reddish-orange with about 2-fingers of off-white head that dissipates quickly, leaving wonderful lacing in its wake. The aroma on this has sweet, caramel, citrus and almost banana notes. The initial sip- a punch to the face of boozy notes and astringency that leaves your taste buds paralyzed momentarily. The second sip- Ah, there's flavor. Big malty (caramel mostly with some biscuit) take the forefront while the hops slowly build up. Orange, earthy, and grapefruit start and then that banana pops in. On the back end there is pine and a weird tartness until the bitterness builds to mouth puckering stickiness. Medium mouthfeel for a 9.6% brew.

3.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

I remember finding this at Friar Tucks and being excited that there was a brewery in a nearby town (Bloomington, IL) that was putting out good beer. I then remember drinking it when we got back and being a little disappointed. Then again, that entire trip was pretty much a downer, other than getting to spend time with some of my favorite people on the planet.

This poured quite foamy and as Nathan mentioned, the head dissipated quite quickly. It is a clear medium amber color. The aroma on this is caramel, mild pine and grapefruit, and on the third sniff, I finally picked up the faint banana that my beertner discovered. The flavor is... a bit odd. A rather balanced double IPA, with the requisite sweetness and not as many hops as I would like to taste. Yet it is bitter, and the banana sort of underpins the entire taste with the citrus, pine, and grapefruit kind of floating above it. It's almost like they open fermented or at least fermented it at too warm a temperature. This being a can, I'm not sure that that would ever work itself out. It's not bad, don't get me wrong. It's more balanced than I prefer for a DIPA, and I find the banana note a little off-putting. It's really sweet, yet the hops come in to attempt to balance it out, but somehow kind of miss the mark. It's sticky sweet on the tongue and medium-bodied.

All in all, a little disappointing, but from what I've read, DeStihl produces many other great brews. I look forward to trying something different when we are back in Illinois. 

3.5/5 caps

-Jennie

Food Pairing: An Italian beef with spicy giardinera
Music Pairing: "Paralysis" by Scott Weiland
Cheese Pairing: Smoked provolone

Fat Head's Hop Stalker

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"Deep in the Yakima Valley, our hop-obsessed Head Brewmaster went commando in seach of his prized nuggets. His mission: Capture the freshest hop flowers he could sneak up on. Then he wet-hopped this bad-ass brew for a deliciously dank IPA. Out of the wild emerged The Hop Stalker."

"Pour it slowly, Unfiltered beer captured inside, go commando, drink it fresh"

All the text on the 16 ounce can of this 7% ABV, 80 IBU, wet hopped IPA seems so inviting to go Gonzo. Go commando, I take that as a challenge to go balls to the wall. Challenge accepted, Fat Head's.

This barely fit into a pint glass (makes sense as 16oz is a pint) with a nice golden amber color with small amount of white head. Very little head, which is fine with me, as it leaves more space for the wet-hopped liquid. You can see tiny bubbles constantly rising through this crystal clear beverage. The aroma on this is dank, like, well, Colorado knows. There is also a nice citrus aroma that washes over, with hints of slight spice to lend for a very hop heavy aroma. It's the season of wet/fresh hop, and I personally don't feel like going into that debate once again (Google it or check our prior reviews on such beers as Sierra Nevada's Estate or Founder's Harvest), we did that too much in previous reviews.

The initial sip on this is an initial blast of unadulterated bliss for hop heads like myself. This is so hop heavy I'm in my own version of Heaven, holding hands and skipping hops across beer vats with Hopsus. Sweet Jesus, if you aren't a religious person, and you're a hop head, this will make you believe in some sort of higher power. That higher power is Hopsus, btw. So the initial sip is just face melting, tongue rocking hops. There is citrus and pine and and and and and. There are so many different flavors coming from this, the taste bud to recognition process is overwhelmed. Dank at first, but instantly kicking into grapefruit, pine, mango, pineapple at times.. Flavor of the hops changing in less than a second between the color wheel, so-to-speak. The malt flavors are not noticed in this, to where this would be classified as "unbalanced" for those who do not have the same love, nay, lust for the Humulus. Dank, tropical, grapefruit, pine, citrus zest, fuck.... I can't type as fast as the flavors are changing. Even after this has been swallowed and copious amounts of hop oils are still around your tongue, gums and cheeks; the flavors are still shifting, running the gauntlet. The drinkability is decent, drinks like a typical IPA, but the palate wrecking oils makes this more of a sipping beer. The mouthfeel on this makes me have a semi-chub. Fuck it, I'm not even going to lie. I'm half-mast drinking this. The mouth puckering oils that are running rampant around are something spectacular. Hopsus, you have let your glorious light shine, and your light has landed on my tongue. With this drink, I accept you into my world, with this swallow, I realize you're all powerful and all knowing. May Hopsus be with you, and also with you.

All religious experience from drinking this beer aside, it's fucking good. Do your taste buds a favor and find some. If Fat Head's isn't distributed in your area, I've heard rumors that people do beer trades, and there may be Facebook groups for trades, for all you social media fiends.

5/5 Caps .... cause FUCK YEAH!
-Nathan-

I am not even sure how to follow that. Well, other than to drink it. And to hope that they introduce themselves in Portland in the next few days with this beer, because we like Portland people, and they should have this beer. And no, I haven't tasted it yet. Nathan wants to stare at me creepily when I take my first sip, so I may be procrastinating a bit.

This is a wonderful, clear golden color with some moderate white foam sitting atop it. The aroma is wonderful: heavy with tropical fruits, such as passionfruit, mango, guava, and a hint of a spice note. The taste? Oh yes, I just called Nathan over to witness the expression on my face. He ended up crawl-scuttling across the floor because he had banged the hell out of his foot on the coffee table. Eh, tall guy/Bigfoot problems. Apparently, I did not disappoint. He wasn't lying about the Color Wheel Effect: it's fast and hard. Prepare yourselves. I'll try to take you through each spoke of that wheel, but as my beertner could not, I give no guarantees. Passionfruit, guava, mango, grapefruit, caramel, pineapple, fermented pineapple (ever had 2-day-old cut-fresh pineapple? Only it's not bad here). I don't get so much dank out of the initial sip; it's more of the mega-coaster at Cedar Point as you are chugging up that first hill, waiting for the bottom to drop out of your stomach. And as soon as I say that and take another sip, there it is, right out of the gate. It's 4:20 somewhere, right?!? Holy hell, this is fantastic. This is palate-wrecked in a good way. This has a medium body: not too thin, not too malty, like Goldilocks' search, just right. Moderate carbonation, and Nathan was right about the hop oils lingering on your tongue long after you swallowed (in a side conversation). Yes, that is what she said, in fact.

Also, a fair warning: Nathan mentioned that people do beer trades. We are definitely cough cough not among those people. And he isn't coming off the last beer we have (as one most certainly is not earmarked for a trade).

5/5 caps
-Jennie

Food Pairing: fucking whatever you want cause your palate is destroyed!
Cheese Pairing: see above
Music Pairing: Bob Marley, "Three Little Birds" because with this beer, everything is, indeed, going to be all right.