Brooklyn Sorachi Ace

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It's been a rough day, but I'll spare you the boring details of caring for my father and the minutia that is taking care of my favorite cancer and dementia patient. Both collided in spectacular fashion today. Nathan and I reside in one another's head enough that we both had in mind to drink the Sorachi tonight, without speaking to one another about it previously, as well as to share with you our opinion of the beer. We haven't done a lot from Brooklyn, and that is nothing but sheer oversight on our behalf. We enjoy their brews, and we do have one more special one stashed, so look for that review to come soon. We also just happen to love the Sorachi Ace hop strain; it's featured in our award-winning homebrew, Sourpuss. It stands apart from other hop strains because of its fantastic lemony and lemongrass-y qualities. When you brew with lemongrass, like we do, it's a natural addition. 

Let's get to Brooklyn's interpretation with this hop. This beer comes with a lot of hype. It's a saison or farmhouse style beer (currently very trendy in the beer world), that features the Sorachi Ace hop. Hell yeah. It pours the color of straw with a large, pillowy, white head. It is fairly hazy, which is expected in a saison. The aroma on this is very faint; I pick up tones of lemon, lemongrass, and straw in the nose, alongside some faint esters from the Belgian yeast strain. One thing I enjoy about many saisons is that they drink a little cleaner than a witbier or hefeweizen, with fewer esters clogging my taste buds and overwhelming my olfactory nerves. In other words, the banana and clove are much more understated in such a style. Taking a healthy sip (there may or may not be some residual head on my nose from accidentally dunking my schnoz into it -- huh? I wonder if beer will clear up that pimple that's growing on my nose?), this is a complex beer that is going to take me a few minutes to deconstruct. There is a strong lemon presence throughout the taste, weaving in and out of notes of cracker, straw, grass, and an ever-so-faint clove-tinged earthiness from the yeast. This is an exceptionally light drinking beer, despite it's 7.6% ABV. It has great carbonation and the body is quite light. It would make a fantastic lawnmower beer, but for its moderate alcohol content and that it's a small batch beer. 

Overall, this is a very good offering from Brooklyn. If you can find some, please do yourself a favor and pick up a bottle. The lemon and the saison yeast work very well together in this. It's a very well-built beer. I've had my eye on this for awhile now, and with some pushing from Jay at Wine & Brew Emporium, I'm very glad we purchased this.

4.7/5 caps

-Jennie

So, reading Jennie's description of this, I'm more intrigued than I was from the get go. I'll keep this short and sweet instead of my initial game plan (because Klansman Jennie won't let me use 'water heads' and 'spastic mongoloids' as descriptive adjectives about my work day. Good job there, Hitler. The sheer dumbstruck look of the nitwit coworkers is one of the reasons I wanted to escape in both beer and literary adventures). 

This has a cloudy straw color with a strong, thick, foamy stark white head. An interesting aroma of straw and lemongrass with backbones of typical Belgian yeast esters (clove and spices). The flavor on this is interesting. Smooth, balanced with the yeast esters with lemon. There's also hints of straw (having worked on a horse ranch, by straw, I also mean the sweet smell of it). The rest of the flavor, Jennie has nailed (hehehe, that's what she said). For a 7.6% brew, this drinks smoother than most American Adjunct Lagers. A creamy mouthfeel with low carbonation makes this a great warmer weather brew. There's a slight stickiness that I notice on the back end that I've only had with Sorachi Ace, it's hard to describe. It's a slight stickiness blended with a light numbing from the oils. Interesting how it pairs with the saison style. And, yes, spell check, saison is a fucking word. 

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

Cheese pairing: A block of queso quesadilla

Food pairing: Ceviche

Music pairing: A sassy Latin salsa dance tune

Short's Huma-Lupa-Licious IPA

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So, this has been an interesting year for all involved with this multifaceted project. On the homebrewing front, things are good. Our brew, Sour Puss, has won 1st place in Buckeye Brew Craft's IPA competition, took 3rd in Elevator Brewing's homebrew competition, and was a finalist in Barley's homebrew competition. On the personal home front, things have been been fucked. I lost my uncle and 3 good friends, all to different reasons, and The Phil (see previous reviews) is battling a sickness, and all in the first 6 months of the godforsaken year of 2014. This is dedicated to my dear friend, Dan Haley. If you haven't figured out, from time to time, we'll open up from time to time with our personal life. This is one of those posts.

Dan Haley, gone too soon. Never a bad memory with him. He was there when my Brother-From-Another-Mother and I got our first tattoos. Brother went in first (as his took longer), Dan decided he and I should have a drink before I get mine. One beer was agreed upon. 3 pitchers and shots later... Dan paid the artist $20 to draw a penis in my friend's tattoo (still to this day, after being covered up minutes later, you can still see it). There was another time that Dan showed up at the Athens house as I started to fall asleep... well... Dan pegged me in the with a beer to wake me up (with his duck tape ammo belt)... see pictures...

So, in his passing, I went up to that state-up-North for his funeral. A small town with one giant church, a strip club, an adult book store, 2 bars and a gas station. That's it. you blink, you miss your salvation. Eh.

On the way back home, we stopped off to get some beer to honor Dan. We found some brews we can't get in Ohio and picked those up also.

Short's Huma-Lupa-Lucious IPA. Yes this might be one of the most long, drawn out reviews before actually getting to the review. If you have a problem with it, please email pissoffwanker@IDoWhatIWant.com ... wait... is that a real site? Forget it... Back to the beer finally.

This pours beautiful clear golden amber color with small amount of head. Mind you, this was purchased May 1st, it's now June 23rd (24th if you want to get technical), so I'm hoping we didn't sit on this for too long, like our last review. Perfectly clear brew. I'm looking at the picture of Dan and I through this beer. This has a nice aroma. Caramel heavy with some herbal notes with faint hints of citrus. The taste on this is interesting. It's not as hoppy as I'd expect from the reviews on those 'other sites' (B.A. and Ratebeer). It has a pleasant taste. Pine heavy on the hop characteristics with hints of tropical fruits, but not overly hoppy. The caramel of the malts lends a huge backbone to this piney concoction. The aftermath that's left on your palate is a slightly numbing, piney stickiness that makes you smack you lips and savor the flavor. The carbonation is perfect on this, not too much, not too little. This is better than when I had it first after getting back in town (maybe it was my palate was wrecked from other brews, maybe it was just emotionally numb, who really knows). This is tasty. If it were to be distributed to Ohio, I would have this as a good go-to IPA.

4.6/5

-Nathan-
PS, you learned some more about our personal stuff, so it's only fair that we're friends now. Go, like our pages and prove your friendship....


So, I've been waiting for a long time to get to this beer. I watched an entire hour-long episode of a series ("Brew Masters", natch), while waiting for my partner-in-zymurgy to locate amazing old pictures and take you on his nostalgic journey. I've thoroughly enjoyed it; Nathan is a little worried he became overly personal. Dan, I hardly knew ye, much like this keyboard.... I seem to have misplaced my typing skills. If you've seen them, please email the above-referenced address.

As this beer has had an hour and change to warm, there is no discernible head remaining, although it remains a beautiful medium orange color. Kind of like picking up a piece of amber jewelry in Riga, Latvia, from a street vendor, and you just know it's old and worn and resinous. I pick up so many notes on this now that it has warmed. Notes of caramel, orange, toffee, and pine waft across my olfactory nerves. Taking a sip, I get each of those in turn, plus a note of earth, probably from some Cascade hops that I don't particularly favor. And then late, way late, like after your curfew when you were 12 and you decided to come home after midnight, a big pine note happens across your tastebuds, and it's delicious, balancing out the sweetness from the caramel malts and the citrus from the hop additions. This is a medium-bodied beer that is nicely refreshing on a really warm, stormy night.

I've heard a lot about Short's. Their beers are a pretty sought-after thing here in Ohio from Those In The Know. I look forward to picking up more beers from them when we visit Michigan -- yes, that beautiful state up north -- when we visit my father's hometown this summer and relive a ton of my childhood memories.

 4.2/5 caps

-Jennie

Pairings:
Music: "Dan's Song" Frank Turner
Cheese: A nicely aged Asiago
Food: Lemon bars

North Peak Wanderer

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Sorry for the lack of presence online lately; today was the first day in nearly a month I'd been on the computer. My father was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and as his caregiver, I've had my hands full. It's not all doom and gloom, though, never fear. We have good beer, a welcome break from caregiving duties tomorrow night with tickets to Frank Turner's appearance at the Nelsonville Music Festival, and tomorrow is the last day of school for Peanut. He's excited about the start of summer break. Let's blow the dust off the keyboard and see if my fingers remember how to operate it.

To continue on the somber note, the world lost two great and influential people today; Maya Angelou was a wonderful soul who I've had the honor of meeting a couple of times. She always came off as so kind and worldly and wise. Jack Joyce, one of the founders of Rogue Brewing, also passed away today. We wish we had one of his beers on hand to enjoy, but instead, I'll highly recommend the 7-Hop IPA, which is fantastic. Please pause for a moment and lift your pint in memory of these wonderful people.

Let's get to what's in my pint. Apparently it's been awhile since we purchased this. This is a session IPA from a fantastic brewery with a small distribution footprint. It's a beautiful clear medium orange color, and the considerable white head dissipated faster than my interest in the latest hipster fad. The aroma is.... ah crap, I hope we didn't sit on this for too long. There are a lot of caramel and toffee notes, with just the faintest hint of pine and maybe a tinge of grapefruit, but those last two are so barely discernible that I'm questioning my own sanity right now. Let's be honest, there wasn't a lot to start. Of my sanity, that is. As I take a sip, it's become clear to me that this is a drink-me-NOW kind of beer. The malts completely overwhelm any hop presence, and for a session IPA, it should be quite the opposite. There are faint notes of citrus and earthiness. There's a vague soapy note toward the back of it, like my mom caught me lying a couple of hours ago. At least the malty notes fade out quickly. It's as appropriately light-bodied for a session IPA, weighing in at 4% ABV should be.

I'm more disappointed in ourselves for sitting on this too long, rather than drinking it fresh. And yes, my fingers did kind of forget how to work a keyboard.

3.8/5 caps, but don't blame the brewery, blame us.


-Jennie

Well, Jennie has perfectly written part of Nathan's story. I figure this is part of the coping process. The day The Phil went to the ER over pain, I was coming back from the funeral of a dear friend (Dan Haley). Two days later, I learned that my mentor at work had passed away. That was all at the beginning of May. This year has been shitty. What the fuck 2014, you were supposed to be better than 2013. Your false hope brings sorrow and tragedy. A few good things that have happened this month- 1) our 3 different hop varieties are growing 2) Jennie won free passes to Nelsonville Music Fest, where we will be seeing Frank Turner 3) we've decided to do a new segment for Behind The Tap of Drinking with the Stars. It will involve us sitting down with a musician over beer and discussing beer (still hashing out details, we have at least one on board, we figure this will spread like hot cakes).

So, apparently there is a beer that needs reviewed. We're sitting on roughly 30 beers in need of reviewing. Fuck. We've sat on some for too long. This would be one. The Wanderer from North Peak. Harder to find (due to limited distribution), and I feel like the asshole for sitting on this for so damn long. This pours a nice amber color, with decent amount of white head that doesn't hang around for long, like the black sheep relative that felt obligated to show up to the family reunion. The aroma on this is malty... sweet caramel.. fuck... no hops. We sat on this for too long. FUCK! The taste of grapefruit and pine are faint on this malty palate. The back of the tongue receive more of a hop blast than the flavor. Sigh. Hops are a finicky beast. Their characteristics dies off after time, and apparently we're the biggest assholes in the world. We shouldn't honestly be reviewing this at this point. We will do another review on this (once we work on thinning out our stock), as this should be enjoyed fresh.

3.9/5 caps (read previous comments)

-Nathan-

Listen to this song... This review will make sense. No food or cheese pairings as we can fuck up anything, anything.
Music pairing: "Plain Sailing Weather" by Frank Turner

Fat Heads Hop Juju

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 If you'll recall the nightmare that was attempting to obtain Founders KBS, Fat Heads Hop Juju was nearly as bad. In this case, the third time was, indeed the charm. Fat Heads has something of a cult following, and it's well earned. We are in love with their Head Hunter, so we're really looking forward to this, their Imperial IPA. (Fat Heads fans should also note that their Sunshine Daydream, a session IPA, is currently available at various locations in Columbus this week.)

This poured a medium caramel color with a lovely off-white head that quickly dissipated from atop this 9% ABV, 100 IBU behemoth. The aroma on this is pure bliss and immediately sent me to my happy place. Initially a huge blast of pine, this has had a few minutes to warm and has developed notes of caramel, citrus, lychee, mango, and guava. Oops, I totally just dunked my nose into my glass. It was completely worth it. After utterances of unbridled ecstasy (including supplications to deities I don't even believe in), let me try to describe how this tastes, besides completely amazing. There are notes of caramel, citrus, papaya, and the aforementioned lychee/mango/guava that dance on the tongue. It's perfectly balanced between hop bitterness and malty sweet. It's also fairly full and round in the mouth. Fully expect Nathan to offer praise and offerings to Hopsus.

We realize that we have drastically under-reviewed Fat Heads. We hope to change that soon.

5/5 caps. It's on par with a well-cared-for Hopslam or The Oracle. And from me, that's high praise.

-Jennie

Well, shit. How does one follow up such praise (without the mention of my own deity of Hopsus)? The way Jennie has hyped this up, it seems like all this was worth the hunt. The hunt involved 3 stores over a week.... finally, our awesome friends at Wine & Brew Emporium had it. Another reason I love them (side note: beer store reviews upcoming soon).

This has been hyped up here in the CBus area. A brewery from Cleveland with limited distribution here (we aren't able to obtain all their selections) that won Gold at the Great American Beer Festival for the Imperial IPA portion. Highly rated on those 'other' review site (Rate Beer and Beer Advocate), yeah, we needed this in/around our mouths.

The aroma is enough to summon Hopsus. We have whole leaf hops in the freezer that I'm thinking about putting in a circle around me while reviewing this. C'mon, the bottle states:
"The magical hops cast their spell, the natives chant and the drums beat. Witchcraft? Maybe just a little. Hop JuJu is a supernatural beer with "a reckless use of hops" creating aromas and flavors  of citrus, pine and tropical fruit with a juicy resiny hop finish. "
How can I not invoke Hopsus into this?!

So, as I listen to a local musician (Scott Gorsuch, who I recently met after a gig. We chatted over IPAs. You can find his music on Youtube), I dive my nose into this. Literally... I have some head on the tip of my nose now, as I want to be one with this aroma. Jennie nailed the aroma, "notes of caramel, citrus, lychee, mango, and guava," although I'm also picking up notes of pine that are lending themselves perfectly to this concoction. My first sip is.... hang on... I need to wipe up a pile of drool. Holy Hopsus! A nice caramel backbone takes presence before the giant juicy blast of hops. Citrus and tropical fruit take the forefront, making you forget all of life's worries and woes. A nice piney note rounds out the back end, reminding you this comes from the earth, and not another spiritual realm. This is definitely a sipping beer, as the 100 IBUs makes your mouth pucker in excitement for the next sip. Don't tease your taste buds, find this when you can and enjoy it.

5/5 caps

-Nathan-

Music Pairing: Hakuna Matata (Lion King... yup)
Cheese Pairing: Kerrygold Dublin Irish Cheddar
Food Pairing: Your favorite sushi roll, done spicy

Sierra Nevada Harvest Single Hop IPA- Variety 291

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We now return you to your regularly schedule beer reviews. Yes, we've been bad on the reviews as of late, but life happens. Don't worry, loyal readers, we haven't given up drinking. I think I'd rather cut off both big toes than give up beer.

We ran into this at one of our favorite beer stores and became intrigued. Yakima #291 hops used. WHA?? It doesn't have a name yet? Ok, let's try it.

Sierra Nevada has a history of making good IPAs, so let's see how this rates up with them. So what little I can find about Yakima #291 is that it's the love child of 4 years of cross breeding a multitude of different varieties of the reason I wake up. So let's give it a go.

This poured a straw color with a fluffy white head that lingered. The head has dissipated as I've done the research (aka, putting links up and queued music up). The aroma on this is interesting. Faint citrus, berries, earthiness and spice. Huh. First sip is pleasant. Nice faint citrus blast with hints of blackberries fading in before giving way to a green tea-esque flavor and mouth feel. Slightly bitter at first which fades into a harmonious marriage of awesome that dances on the taste buds, bringing you closer to where you want to take your taste buds dancing. Not really what I would consider an IPA, as it's not hoppy enough, in my opinion to be classified as such. More like an awesome Pale Ale.  This drinks smooth with a nice slightly stickiness to it, from the hop oils, but not stripping the enamel off the teeth.

4.6/5 caps

-Nathan-

Not gonna lie, I'm so intrigued by the aroma on this I'm just going to cut to the chase. While Nathan wrote his portion, I somehow still have some fluffy head sitting atop my beer glass. I suppose that's not too surprising, considering this weighs in at a moderate 6.5% ABV.

I am seeing more medium golden amber or orange than straw on this. The head is fluffy and white, and I'll give Sierra Nevada massive props for the head retention on this. I think Nathan nailed the aroma, so I'm ready to swan dive into this. I am picking up caramel and orange up front that quickly fades into a grassy note, which then dries out to a bit of spice and black peppercorn note. The berry notes are noticeable on the back end of this, mostly blueberry and yes, even some blackberry. This is good. It's not going to strip the enamels off your teeth, but it's going to cut through any random flavors remaining in your mouth.

One thing I find intriguing is that IBUs don't always indicate the bitterness of the beer; that's ideally what the definition of IBU calculations are, but when a brewer balances out the beer with sweeter malt characteristics and yet manages to stay within the style guidelines, not all IPAs are going to be enamel-stripping. Contrarily, that's also the beauty of brewing: you can also take many liberties within each style and scoff at the stuffy people who make up the guidelines.

This is the first of five beers in the Harvest series from Sierra Nevada due out this year. They are going to feature the single hop (this beer), a fresh hop, a wet hop, and a wild hop, as well. Apparently they're going to double up on one of the hop methods, because I only count four different ones... ah, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, right? That being said, I'm very much looking forward to each of them. As a hophead and a homebrewer, I enjoy experimenting with hop methods. I've really enjoyed the single hop series we've had from various brewers (we have at least one more in our stash to review to you), as I thoroughly enjoy a solid showcase of each variety.

4.75/5 caps

-Jennie

Music pairing: The Twilight Singers, Blackberry Belle (yes, the entire album)
Cheese pairing: Double Gloucester
Food pairing: Homemade blueberry pie or blackberry cobbler

Founders KBS

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Here we are on National Beer Day, with over 2 cases of beer stashed to review just for you. Honestly, it's been more of a Monday today than I care to even discuss (it's amazing sometimes just how brashly ADHD and dementia can clash), so I'm in the mood for some nice, strong beer. I didn't figure we'd sit on this particular selection for too long. Last week was an epic chase for the mythical beer that is Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. I get it... it's one of the top-rated stouts, nay beers, in the country, and we live in this strange microcosm of the craft beer world that is Columbus, which has given rise to Hopslamgate and other such nefarious and questionable business and trading practices. Last week could be summed up by being also called The Chase for KBS. It was released, 1 to 2 cases to each establishment, throughout the city, to those establishments who purchased the required minimum of their regular Breakfast Stout. Most places sold out in 20 or so minutes of their entire stash. I was #25 in line for a place that had 24 bottles to be had. They sold out before they even were supposed to begin selling it. This town is crazy for limited release craft beer, but that's an entire other blog post. Regardless, we have befriended a couple of retail establishments with honest and fair business practices, and we were handsomely rewarded.

Enough rambling. On with the beer. I have a badge on Untappd to unlock. Priorities, Jen! This pours a rich, opaque black with a finger or so of coffee-colored head. There is better head retention than I expected from an 11.2% ABV behemoth, and it is leaving a gorgeous, tight lacing on my glass (mine would be the snifter with a long stem). The aroma on this makes me wish I had saved it for next week, when Peanut is on spring break and I'll need a good, strong morning brew. It's predominantly coffee with notes of vanilla, chocolate, an almost nutty tone, and definite booze. Taking a sip, I immediately understand why there is so much hype surrounding this beer. It's smoother than a baby's backside. There is a blast of coffee and chocolate and roasted malty goodness up front, which quickly gives way to a soft vanilla note (and not that fake tastes-like-I-just-ate-a-candle vanilla). It fades to a faint bourbon note from the barrel aging (hence the Kentucky in the name), and the finish is all booze. Crap. This is fantastic. Easily one of the best stouts I've ever had. And I drank a LOT of their regular Breakfast Stout over the weekend. It's also velvet smooth from the oatmeal, and just silky fantastic in the mouth, with just enough stickiness. I never thought I'd say this, but it's worth $7 for a 12-ounce bottle.

I was just telling Nathan earlier that it was quickly turning into a whiskey kind of night. Scratch that... the KBS filled that void.

5/5 caps

-Jennie

In the brink of seeking out of this mythical beer, we came to the realization that we obtained 3 bottles somehow. The 3rd one is being added to the beginning of our beer cellar. Not trying to brag, more of befriend us in real life and we might share when it ages. How else does one start a beer cellar than with a hugely hyped, unobtainable brew?

But I digress as I continue on my portion of the review. Mine has had time to warm up as my Partner-In-Zymurgy took lead. She needed to zone out with good beer and good music. I, being the man I am, can show extreme patience. I mean, my 9-5 job is problem solving/baby sitting adults in a factory, so I need to show patience. And speaking of factory, I need to speed up the process on this review factory and get to the beer. Damn my wandering mind.

As I turn up the music of a local musician (Scott Gorsuch), I slouch back in the chair and admire the look of this. Jet black with a small amount of creamed coffee-colored head. The head is lingering around despite it being poured roughly an hour ago. The aroma is bourbon heavy, sweetness from the malt, and notes of vanilla and chocolate popping in to lend themselves to this dreamy concoction. Now for the part I've been longing for all day, the taste.... How do I describe this using actual words and not grunts and drooling? There's a rich chocolate taste up front with a strong kick of bourbon  following that. Shortly after, a nice vanilla bean flavor jumps in to tame out the bourbon and rides smoothly until the end. There's some sweetness to this, but not overly sweet, nor cloying. Definitely a sipping beer. This 11.2% drinks smooth with a slightly sticky, yet dry finish, like a good wine. With each sip, the flavor develops to more of a blending of flavors. The tongue is telling me to hold onto this tight, while gripping a knife in my other hand, in case of marauders trying to take on sip of this drink of kings. I haven't heard of reports of Hessian soldiers or other various bandits here as of late in the neighborhood, but I can't be off my guard for a minute. No, not on my watch.

5/5 caps

-Nathan-

Cheese pairing: Artisinal farmer's cheese
Food pairing: Red velvet cheesecake
Music pairing:  Alice In Chains "Jar of Flies" (yes, the entire album) or support local musicians

Knee Deep Hoptologist

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Well, this has been a less-than-stellar winter so far, with me being too sick to review much good ole craft beer. Seriously, Mother Nature, wake the fuck up. We're ten days into spring and have now just had two good days. Sigh. That's not to say that we haven't been picking up and stashing a ton for later reviews, it's just that I've been too congested to really get a feel for the nuances of many beers. That is not to say that I've merely been drinking swill; nay, we've had plenty of good stuff recently.

So, remember how much we love love love Knee Deep Brewing??? Yeah, we almost forgot, too, until their brews hit the market again recently. They recently quintupled their production capacity, so now we can get more of their yummy brews. We attended a Knee Deep tasting recently, and discovered this as well as a couple of other treasures from this wonderful brewery. We chatted with the distributing rep for awhile and we learned that somewhere, somehow, this particular brew was rated better than Pliny the Elder in a blind side-by-side taste test. Hmmmm. This certainly piqued my interest. Let's see how it stacks up to some beers we can readily get here in Ohio.

It pours a deep golden color with a fluffy, light toffee-colored head. The aroma is grapefruit, malty sweetness, oranges, with a note of orange peel toward the back. Oh, and there's a hint of booze in the aroma. Yeah. Taking a sip, my taste buds are confronted by earthy flavors up front which yield quickly to bright citrus fruit flavors, which then fade out to pine needles toward the back end. There's a blast of grapefruit toward the middle and it sticks throughout the finish. There's a hit of caramel toward the middle from the extra malts that give this the oomph to be considered a Double IPA. Candidly, I recall this being much better and hoppier at the tasting than it is now. Don't get me wrong: it's a solid, tasty, delicious brew. It's well-balanced, let's say. It's just not quite as hoppy as I remember, and being the unabashed hop lover I am, I want the hops to come through just a tinge more than they do in this. The mouthfeel on this is just solid; that it's a well-balanced beer really comes through at every sip.

4.75/5 caps

-Jennie
 
Ah, Knee Deep. Many memories have been spent with your Hop Shortage, Simtra, and McCarthy's Bane. We've missed your distribution here in Ohio, but understand your need to expand. Apparently, since our last review of them (where we had a Knee Deep drought), they expanded to 4x their size, have a tap room and plan to expand to 16 states (instead of the previous 5). Good things are worth the wait. I emailed them recently to compliment them on their selections and to find out the background of their name. I was thinking it was drawn inspiration from the Funkadelic song "(Not Just) Knee Deep". Apparently I was far off. CEO Jerry Moore replied with "The short version of the answer is that "Knee Deep" refers to the depth of the snow one night in Reno when our Brewmaster was doing an 'all night' brew session."

As Jennie mentioned, we recently went to a tasting, and that's where we first tasted this 9%, 102 IBU behemoth. Talking with the distributor, who has a few bottles of Pliny at home, I asked him his personal preference between the two. He said they're both fantastic beers, but couldn't pick one. Fair enough. As someone who has never tasted Pliny (if you would like to send us a bottle to review, contact us), I have to take the word of mouth from others on this matter. Speaking of matter, I believe I'm supposed to review this.

This is a deep golden, almost amber color with some light head still sticking around. As this has had time to warm up, I'm catching grapefruit and citrus heavy on the nose with hints of sweetness from the malts. According to Knee Deep's website, this contains Cascade, Citra, Columbus, Magnum and Hersbrucker hops. The "C" hops come out heavy in the nose at this point. The first sip of this near room temp IPA is fantastic. Sweetness blending with citrus, tropical and grapefruit notes make the front fantastic. The middle is sweeter with the malt flavors (biscuit and caramel flavors). The finish is dry with a nice pine and grapefruit flavor to it. This drinks like a good IPA should, medium mouthfeel with decent carbonation, and a nice resiny stickiness that lingers.

Oh yes, Knee Deep, welcome back to our fridge.

4.9/5 caps

-Nathan-

Music Pairing: Funkadelic "(Not Just) Knee Deep" (I don't care about the real answer, this will always play in my head when I see your name)
Food Pairing: BBQ Pork
Cheese Pairing: Vermont Extra Sharp White Cheddar