Deschutes - Hop Henge Experimental IPA

This is a beer I know nothing about before tasting it.  While that might not make for very interesting reading or back story, it should provide for a very honest and unbiased review.  We just started getting Deschutes in the area within the last four months or so and I am definitely OK with that.  I don't buy sixers that often and since the selection of Deschutes we have thus far is primarily six packs I have not been picking up a whole lot of it.  I've also had all the current varieties thus far and choose to focus on new experiences.  However, when I saw this bomber which was both new and from Deschutes I had to snag it.  Besides, try and tell me that the label art doesn't look promising.  Hops are spilling forth from bags from bags!  It's a veritable monument to hops, right?  Let's pour!

Bottle gives no brewed date, but reads "Best by 08/27/13"

Aroma 11/12

A promising beginning shows plenty of citrus aromas with pineapple and grapefruit leading the way.  Floral notes are not too far behind, but resin seems distant at this point.  The caramel sweetness is present and doing its best to mingle with the hops, but its definitely second fiddle.  After the beer warms it opens up beautifully.  A rich honey note steps in to dance with the hops, which remain strong, and the piney resin begins to kick things up a notch.

Appearance 3/3

This bright beer's transparency really helps showcase the honey and pumpkin hues.  The head was particularly pleasing in texture, size, and retention.  A creamy color to match the wet, creamy looking texture as bubbles breached the surface everywhere they could.

Flavor 18/20

I had to wait until my taste buds acclimate before I could truly get a handle on everything that was going on in this bottle.  There are a pair of large flavors at work and its hard to hear anything else of the din of those two oafs.  Largely the huge caramel malts are fighting the hop pine flavors tooth and nail, but behind that are some solid flavors as well.  In fact, the caramel flavors are apparently in a tag team with some biscuity malts that take over because the sweetness seems to die away rather quickly.  The beginning shows us brief splashes of the aroma's citrus before it is almost immediately washed away by the two larger flavors.  Those two gorillas give make for a backbone thick with caramel sugars, pine, resin, and... no that's about it.  Hopheads should love the finish particularly as it gives the tingle of  hop acids, alcohol warmth, and spicy black pepper before it begrudgingly sticks and slides down your throat.  The aftertaste is what one should expect in a strong IPA with plenty of bitter resin, a persistent pepper, and a slight drying effect despite the plentiful malts.  Not the biggest IPA I've ever had, but definitely enough to satisfy those seeking their daily ration of humulus lupulus.

Mouthfeel 4/5

My first note on this was "thick."  It was accurate.  All the malts required to balance the "henge's-worth" of hops result in a big body beer that stumbles and bumbles its way across your taste buds.  The carbonation is spot on and leaves most of the tingly sensations to the resin, peppery hops, and a warmth that seems to only make an appearance in the finish and aftertaste; an interesting trick in a 10.9% ABV brew.

What a great sight!

Overall Impression 8/10

The amounts of flavor in this beer are certainly to be reckoned with.  I also appreciate the body and the fact that the beer somehow maintains a perfect level of carbonation regardless of how warm it gets in the glass.  The transition of flavor from sweet (brief citrus & caramel) to bitter (biscuit, resin, pine, grapefruit's bitter) is also an interesting characteristic to which one should pay attention.

Total 44/50

I'm trying really hard not to be fickle or hypocritical.  On one hand, I often criticize beers for not "bringing the thunder" when it comes to flavor.  This beer certainly does bring with it some substantial flavor, but brings it with all the nuance and tact of a bowling ball.  It's just... asserts itself with flavor.   Again, flavor is good!  I'll never fault a beer for having flavor, I just want to taste more than just the splatting of ingredients on my tongue.  Sure, I tasted several different flavors, I just  really had to search for them behind the giants in the way.  The imagery of a paintball being fired on the tongue refuses to leave me.  Not because this beer was so over-the-top intense, but because it basically all came at once until you get to the finish.  SMACK!  Where was the chance for flavors to develop on the tongue?  I don't know.  The more I type the more I sound to myself like a whiny idiot.  Maybe this is what happens when an amateur tries to put into words the subjective notion of flavor.

TL;DR:  Good beer.  Lots of flavor.  Expect a car wreck of hops in your mouth, but not a wide spectrum of flavor.

Dogfish Head - Burton Baton (2007)

Today my quest to break out some of my weird an unusual beers takes me back to 2007.  It was a troubled time for America and I give you the following alliterative list to prove it:

• Barbaro is euthanized
• Bears lost the Super Bowl
• Britney Spears shaves her head.  Gets new tattoo
• "Breakfast of Champions" author Kurt Vonnegut dies
• Boris Yeltzin dies
• Bob Barker leaves the "Price is Right"
• Boston wins the World Series

Gratuitous Barbaro pic.

There were a lot of bad things, beginning with "B" that happened in 2007, but thankfully Burton Baton flew in the face of it all.  Having been brewed off and on since it's release in 2004, it eventually gained enough popularity to become brewed year-round.  Thank goodness.  It's labeled as an Imperial IPA, but Burton Baton is actually a blend of an DIPA and an English-style old ale, which is then aged in a big ol' oak tank.  Normally, I would not review an IPA or DIPA that is one month over 6 years old.  However, the bottle contradicts my logic by clearly stating, "Lush & enjoyable now, this beer ages with the best of 'em."  OK, I'll bite.  Let's pour!

Aroma 10/12

Oak notes are prominent, but nothing about this beer is harsh or aggressive.  The vanilla and oak touch the nose and bring with them some interesting travel companions.  A faded citrus is next.  It carries the remnants of juicy grapefruits and pineapple, but those fruity bits have all but disappeared completely.  Thankfully, we still have a slight acidity that gives the scent a bit of a bite.  The old ale notes come in after that and carry with them all the things we love about the style: sweet malts, a light roast, raisins, and a nice gentle warmth.

Appearance 2/3

I'm not expecting the world when it comes to carbonation in a 6 year-old bottle, but I was pleasantly surprised at the half finger of head that formed after a fairly aggressive pour.  Unfortunately, the head was the high point for the appearance of this beer.  It sits in the glass the murky color of a sun tea that has steeped too long and grown too dark. Held up to the light an attractive red can be found in the center of the glass, but it is poorly situated amidst a fog of rusty hues.

Flavor 19/20

Whoa!  One is immediately lambasted by dark fruits, caramelized sugar, honey, a deceptively sneaky warmth, and a wash of malty sweetness.  There's no fading in here; this beer is sweet and it means it.  There is a richness of flavor that cannot be anticipated from the aroma.  I wish there were more to say about the backbone of the beer, but the flavors are so robust and well-blended that there is little opportunity for nuance.  If held in the mouth a pepper note arises, but I am uncertain if that another remainder of the hops or just alcohol tingle.  I swear that at times this beer even shows glimpses of maple syrup.  The finish shows a slight warming and a moderate bitter to show us that the hops cannot be forgotten just yet.  Both sensations linger well into the aftertaste where that pesky pepper note appears again as a dot on the horizon.

Mouthfeel 5/5

Excellent work here.  Not only is this beer smooth thanks to some barrel aging and some cellaring, but also thanks to gads of malt.  Remember the honey and syrup mentioned earlier?  Well, it's nowhere NEAR as thick as those, but it's just as silky and smooth.  Since we're on the subject, it definitely has a full body and loads of sugars to let this beer absolutely slide all over the mouth.  It avoids becoming to heavy and thick by utilizing perfectly present carbonation, alcohol warmth, and that peppery prickle.  The alcohol warmth, of course, gets stronger as the beer warms and helps contribute to a dryer finish.  Prior to warming no one would have a clue about the 10% ABV.

Overall Impression 9/10

This aged incredibly well.  True, the hops are not at their peak freshness, but that doesn't mean their hallmark cannot still be found 6 years after bottling.  The aroma was not the strongest trait of the beer, but the less impressive introduction made experiencing the rest of the beer an exciting surprise.  The flavor was intense and sweet and the mouthfeel was amazing.  This beer did great things with its dark fruits, oak, and camouflaged warmth.  What a treat!

Total 45/50

Silky without being syrupy.  Sweet, but not one-dimensional nor cloying.  What more do you want?  This beer gave big flavor without feeling like it was beating you.  I would definitely say that at this age it errs more on the side of the English-style old ale than an Imperial IPA.  It's abundance of sweet malt, dark fruits, color, and apparent ability to age well all point toward the old ale.  The aroma would indicate an IPA that is too old!  A beer that clings to its "big beer" status and former glory with a thick body, now unbalanced sweetness, and perhaps a high ABV.  Thankfully, it became much more than that over the last 6 years.  Maybe Burton Baton was one of the best things to come out of 2007.  It sure as hell wasn't James Blunt.

And they ain't kiddin'!

SOURCES:

http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/occassional-rarities/burton-baton.htm

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-28-2419931004_x.htm

Mikkeller - I Hardcore You

I enjoyed the description of this beer from the Brewdog Blog so much that I'm just going to quote it here,

"I Hardcore You is a 9.5% Imperial India Pale Ale, an international collaborative effort between 2 of Europe's most rock 'n roll brewers. This beer is a blend of BrewDog’s Hardcore IPA and Mikkeller’s I Beat You. After the blending, the beer was then dry hopped a further twice. Making I Hardcore You a beer which has been dry hopped four times, or maybe even six times. We kinda lost count."

Oh, and from what I can tell, this was a one-time brew collaboration between the two that was originally brewed back in mid-2010, but recently enjoyed a resurgence in May of 2012.  I appreciate Mikkeller more every time and drink it and while my experience with Brew Dog is limited, I haven't been disappointed yet.  Let's pour!

Aroma 11/12

There's a great citrus blend happening here and rushes out as soon as the cap is pried.  At first the nose is sweet with honey, but in short time the citrus blend harmonizes with it and the results are splendid.  The citrus fruits are pineapple, lemon, and some lesser mandarin oranges.  There is a funk behind it all that comes across as a bit earthier than normal and some distant hop notes of grass and a little spice.  The beer begins to warm a bit and that funk note from earlier has started to open into a full resiny blossom.  It never overtakes the citrus/honey blend, but it is a concentrated, dark smell that hopefully translates into a big, hoppy flavor.  Other aromas are hints of the alcohol and a toffee-like malt that blends so well with the sweet hops that it is difficult to nail down what exactly it smells like.

Appearance 2/3

This beer pours and sits in the glass the color of dark honey.  It is an all-but-opaque cloudy glass full of orange-browns and rusty hues.  The head was fairly long lasting, a nice almond color, and possessed a nice fluffy texture.  While one can't give it points for a range of color, it certainly looks ominous and give the impression that this IIPA means business.

Flavor 18/20

It definitely does not start out as sweet as the aroma, but with a lot of dry-hopping I suppose that's to be expected.  However, sweetness is still the first characteristic detected.  It's more of the toffee from the aroma, but with a bright citrus note immediately behind and trying to upstage it at every chance it gets.  The toffee persists its way into the backbone of the beer and refuses to be tamed.  The brown-sugary toffee has some competition from some orange zest, an early splash of pine, and some resin but nothing that threatens its crown.  As the beer sits in the mouth the resin bitter becomes stronger as does an earthy note from the hops and both lead to a more complex finish.  The beer washes down with a mixture of orange and caramel, but not without a strong earthy note and some pepper.  The aftertaste is lingering earthy resin which trumps the alcohol by leaving the mouth watering and not dry.

Mouthfeel 5/5

Very smooth and extremely full-bodied, in true IIPA fashion this beer offers very little carbonation to play on the tongue.  The alcohol is mostly camouflaged throughout the beer, becoming noticeable in only the aroma and the aftertaste.  Feels like a big ol' IIPA should.

Stolen directly from the BrewDog website.

Overall Impression 8/10

While this beer wasn't as laden with hop flavor as I had imagined, the balance in it was impressive.  This wasn't a hop bomb, though it certainly is hoppy.  It was more of a huge, balanced, IPA.  The malts were definitely sweet and served their purpose, but I feel the hop FLAVORS (not their aroma nor their bitter) suffered in turn.  In the same vein, while this beer balanced the malt and the hops well, it never really bothered to blend them except in the aroma.  It's more of a meeting of the "immovable object" and the "unstoppable force" instead of a cohesive blend between these two powerhouse flavors.  That said, it's still remarkably tasty and I'd easily like to have a few bottles on hand for a rainy day.

Total 44/50

I'm pretty sure I said in all in the "Overall Impression" section.  This beer is big, tasty, hoppy, and sweet.  The aroma is fantastic and seems to blend all the good things that are happening in this beer.  Unfortunately, for the flavor, the blending is not as successful.  It's like two semis colliding in your mouth; the results are pretty kick ass, but I can't help but wonder what this beer would've been like had the two powerhouses decided to work together.  The aroma shows it can be done - those flavors go great together!  Now it's just a matter of getting these two great breweries to tweak the recipe ever so slightly before the next release of I Hardcore You.  Right brewmasters?  Next release?  Eh?  Hopefully we can all see this again in two years.

Also stolen.

Green Flash - Palate Wrecker

When you see a beer emblazoned with such an appellation, it really demands that you pick it up.  I mean, c'mon... Palate Wrecker?  It jabs your curiosity with a red hot poker and challenges you at the same time.  I know exactly what this beer is made to do and when you're in the mood for that hoppy, bitter, sticky goodness, nothing else will do.  There's no IBUs listed on the label, but it states a 9.5% ABV.  Good, I never really liked my liver anyway.  I'm ready to crack this open, I just hope it doesn't crack back.  Let's pour!

Aroma 11/12

Starting off, this beer leaves no hop scent unturned.  It begins with a strong grassy smell, adds resin, grapefruit, pine, and dabbles with some oranges.  The malts come through as hay-like with a touch of mustiness, but also offer a distant bit of brown sugar which has to shout to be heard through the citrusy hops.  Once the beer settles a bit, the hops fall into a pine & citrus partnership, with a bit of herbal tickle that keeps us mindful of the hop plant's relations in the Hemp family (cannabaceae, pronounced can-uh-BAY-shee-ay).  The citrus comes across as so sweet and fragrant that it borders of floral.  Very nice.

Appearance 3/3

As expected this beer showed great head, lacing, and retention.  The sticky head was a slightly yellowed ivory color and covered the surface well after the pour.  The color is more copper and amber than I expected.  Well, I guess most IPAs are copper and/or amber, but this appears more red when just sitting in the glass.

Flavor 17/20

I was about to take the first sip of this beer and I began to wonder as I raised the glass to my mouth, "Will this be a really sweet opening to this beer to balance the malt or just rush right in with bitter?"  Answer:  It SLAMMED me with bitter.  I take that back, there's a light sugary citrus note that floats for just a moment before being comically crushed with an anvil.  Despite this barely exaggerated description, there really is more to this beer but you've gotta pay pretty close attention to find it behind the "These-go-to-eleven" level of hops.  After the bitter explosion, if you hold the beer in the mouth, you'll get quite an intense resin flavor mixed with a pseudo-balancing citrus sweetness, honey, and some sugary, caramel malts.  Not only does holding the beer in the mouth help find these flavors, but so does acclimating your palate to the bitterness.  Halfway through the bottle, these flavors become much easier to detect.  Good heavens is this beer bitter!  The finish is, you guessed it, ridiculously bitter.  However, a quicker swig lets the caramel malts help fend off most of the bitterness.  The beer is sticky in the back of the throat and makes saliva difficult to swallow.

Mouthfeel 4/5

Adequate carbonation in the beginning, but toward the end of the bottle the carbonation has abandoned ship which does not help to finish off this monster beer.  The alcohol warmth is invisible behind the hops and the body is just as heavy as the sticky head and remnants in the back of the throat would have you believe.  Normally, I'd say the minimal level of carbonation is perfect, but in a beer this strong and heavy I could really use a few extra bubbles.  There is nothing small about the mouthfeel of this beer.

Overall Impression 8/10

For what it is, it's a kick ass beer.  No really.  It might just kick your ass.  Large aroma, gargantuan flavors, and a car crushing mouthfeel all make this not a beer to be taken lightly.  True to it's name, it is a palate wrecker.  Those looking for balance or nuance look elsewhere.  You'll not find it here.  If you've got a hankering for hops... this. is. it.  

Total 43/50

Well, I was looking for hops when I bought this and boy did I find them.  This beer absolutely walloped me in the mouth and did not apologize afterwards.  It then kicked my cat and pinched a baby.  I'm not sure where it got the baby because I don't even have kids.  Palate Wrecker is an insanely accurate name and description for this beer.  This is both good and bad.  It's good because it doesn't leave you wondering if the brewer meant to make a more nuanced, balanced DIPA/IIPA.  He/she did not.  They made this beer to destroy you.  It's bad because FAR more often than not, I want to drink a beer with balance.  This beer sacrifices drinkability, balance, nuance, and complexity all in the name of what your tongue can endure.

This is not a beer I could drink every day.  It is, without question, a special occasion beer.  It's the beer you keep on hand to see how many IBUs your craft beer buddies can take or when you're REALLY in the mood for something hoppy.  However, it never claims to be anything but.  It says Palate Wrecker right on the friggin' label.  What did you think you were getting?  Due to its honesty and implying the brewers' intentions, I cannot rate it lower.  This beer is exactly what it wants to be.  No apologies.

Founders - Double Trouble

I have no idea how I've not reviewed this beer yet.  I like to review these big IPAs as soon as possible while they are fresh and closest to how the brewer intended them.  I got through some of the big boys, but this one has somehow eluded me.  It's another big DIPA from Michigan (Hopslam from Bell's being the other that I've reviewed) and it is often paired against its interstate "rival."  Heck, a local bar in the Quad Cities had an event for just such a purpose!  Check out the awesome graphic below.

Pretty sure this image is the property of RIBCO.

On a note entirely separate I FOUND MY DIGITAL CAMERA!  No longer will my shots be imbued with a pinkish hue.  I giggled like a school girl when I found it.  Not only will I be able to take higher quality shots for the blog again, but I found it just in time for beer fest season!  Now you can be inundated with all sorts of high quality digital images (I know you're excited)! Enough with the ramblin'.  Let's pour!

Aroma 11/12

You can easily smell this brew before ever pouring a drop!  It starts of sweet with mandarin oranges and pine, but quickly goes through many permutations.  The first being a bit more tropical with bits of mango, lemon zest, and a hint of warmth.  Next some faint caramel and toasty malts appear.  It settles into what at first seems like a lemony note, but the tropical theme hasn't had it final say yet!  It turns into a sugary pineapple with a classic grassy hop behind it.  Absolutely beautiful, even if it's not much balance.

Appearance 3/3
Extremely high clarity for an IIPA, but it still manages to show a moderate range of gold and honey tones.  A nice column of carbonation ever-ascends to the top and helps keep the aroma strong  The head is fair in size, a light orange pastel in color, and appears wet and creamy upon settling.  Oops, there was a splash left in the bottom of this bottle that managed to put a nice haze into it and remove some of that surprising clarity.

Flavor 17/20
Bitter, bitter, and more bitter.  First things first, this beer was bottled on 01/06/2012, so it's not even two months old.  I can't assume hop characteristics would fade a ton in that amount of time, but I am allowing for some flavor decay.  This beer begins with a dainty lemon zing before delving into the more brawling flavors.  The caramel comes next, which adds a nice, mellow roundness to the whole works and helps the bitterness seem slightly less aggressive than a mother wolverine with a kidney stone.  The bitterness in this in intense and dominates the flavor profile. Grapefruit is not hard to find behind this bitter (big surprise), but other flavors must nearly be sought out in order to be detected.  As mentioned, caramel, bitter and grapefruit come forward rather easily, but the notes of pineapple (or any of the other fruits for that matter) are all but imagined.  As I mentioned in the "Appearance" section, there was a splash left in this bottle when I began tasting it.  I cannot state how important it was to pour in that last splash of beer.  It completely changed the clarity and the flavor.  Before that splash, this beer tasted bitter with little else at all!  Adding that last splash, gave a somewhat balancing caramel and strengthened the citrus.  The finish on this is a continuation of the grapefruit and the bitter, which leads into a dry aftertaste.

Mouthfeel 5/5
I can't believe that this is 9.4% ABV!  I never would have guessed.  The body is medium-full and very pleasantly smooth from all the caramel malts.  The carbonation is ample, but nearly absent toward the end of the bottle and teeters on becoming non-existant save for a quick swish in the mouth.  The beer also posseses a light creaminess not typically found in IIPAs or DIPAs.

Overall Impression 8/10
Lots to love here if you love hops.  It's a well-crafted beer in many areas, including: body, appearance, head, and hidden warmth.  Its smell was more complex than the taste (far from a sin), but the flavor seemed a bit content to overpower its drinker with hop bitter instead of hop flavor.  If you love a bitter beer, this is a match made in heaven!  If you're looking for a bit more balance or to see what hops can TRULY offer a beer, then this beer will still be tasty, but perhaps not your ideal IIPA.  I enjoyed this beer, it is far from being bad or lacking in flavor.  However, to only focus on the bitter of the hop, sells that plant short as it is capable of so much more.


Total 44/50
This score places it at the tip top of the "Excellent" category and rightly so.  It's very well made, laden with flavor, and has not only camouflaged its alcohol warmth, but also apparently wrapped it in stealth technology.  This is a hop lover's DREAM.  If you love hops and you love bitter, then look no further.  However, as I mentioned earlier, I believe that hops are capable of so much more than simply landing vicious right hooks to my tongue.  They can be sweet, tropical, spicy, herbal, piney, woody, and floral (amongst others).  Why not utilize those capabilities?  I certainly know that Founders is capable!  I also know that while some of those characteristics would not have jived with the beer they were trying to make, some of them would have and we wouldn't have been any worse off for it.  I'll certainly buy this again next year when it comes around, but I'll be buying for the bitter and not for the balance.  In finishing, I'd like to give Founders props for making a behemoth beer and calling it an IIPA, when it seems all too easy to call a beer an "Imperial" and then try to get away with something less than.  Good work, Founders.  This certainly qualifies.

New Glarus - Thumbprint IIPA

OK, so I have had this beer for a while now and watched other reviews "scoop" me and talk about this beer. I have really been trying to hold off (and spread out my New Glarus reviews) on reading them so that I can be totally surprised.  Today, I can hold out no longer!  It is FRIDAY, Untappd.com just celebrated their millionth check-in (that should appropriately date this post), and I am ready for some fantastic beer.  Very excited to say... Let's pour!

Picture is my own.  Bottle art image used without permission for educational uses only.

Aroma 10/12
Clean, nonastringent citrus notes are first to the nose and primarily feature grapefruit aromas.  White grapes(?) can also be detected as well as a peppered, piney sidenote.  It seems like this paragraph should be longer with all the goodness happening here, but it is a very simple, yet beautiful aroma. The malt is in there somewhere, but my "beginner's nose" is not yet able to discern it from the greenhouse-full of hops.

Appearance 3/3
A vibrant, "Lux Aurumque" fills my glass.  A slightly aggressive pour yields tons of ivory colored head (see picture) that still covers the surface halfway through the pint and leaves spots of lacing as well.  The head appears soapy through the sides of my pint glass, but looks foamy and cloud-like from the top.  Very appealing!  I was surprised to see how clear this beer was for an Imperial, let alone one that is bottle fermented.  There is a bit of translucence, but it is far from cloudy or opaque and much closer to transparent.

Picture is my own.

Flavor 19/20
The beer only rings in at 85 IBUs for an IIPA, which is lower than some IIPAs & DIPAs but helps New Glarus achieve an amazing balance in this beer.  Initial flavors are the hop grassiness and malt in a keen, but hop-leaning balance.  As the beer is held in the mouth and the backbone flavors grow, the true balance (and talent of New Glarus' brewers) becomes wildly apparent.  The backbone allows the malt to really step up and counter a lot of the hop bitterness, but not the hop flavor.  That means you are drinking an IIPA that is becoming steadily sweeter, yet still maintains the grapefruit/citrus flavors.  The bitter is never absent (and it should not be!), but it definitely lets other flavors do their thing.  The finish gradually becomes more bitter as the hops contact the back of the tongue, but still does not let the sweetness become overwhelmed.  It even hints at a bit of the warmth that has been so well camouflaged until this point.  Aftertaste, in the beginning of the pint is remarkably clean.  Yes, I said a clean finish in an IIPA.  However, once the mouth becomes more saturated with flavors toward the end of the pint, the aftertaste shows the peppery hop notes from the aroma as well as a non-overwhelming hop bitter.  While not truly clean toward the end of the bottle, I am guessing that this is as clean a finish as an IIPA is ever going to get.

Mouthfeel 5/5
How is a beer this lightly colored this full-bodied?  This is not a bad thing, in fact it is remarkably appropriate for the imperial style.  The carbonation tends to peter out a bit toward the end of the pint, but with the spiciness on the tongue any more carbonation may have easily been mistaken as prickly.  The warmth in this beer is all but undetectable and wondrously hidden.

Overall Impression 9/10
This beer has it all: stylistically accurate, technically sound, complex flavor, insane balance, and a robust "exbeerience." (TM)  What else is there to say?  You know it is impressive when even someone who is hesitant about hops (*ahem*) sings its praises.


Total 46/50
I'm not going to say that this beer is going to convert any "hop haters" out there or drinkers unaccustomed to the bitter "grassy" taste of a hop abundant brew, but I will say that those who are on the fence (or getting there) NEED to try this brew.  The balance is remarkable and the flavor features things IN ADDITION to hops.  Unfortunately, this is still a novel idea to many brewers that could be making ridiculous brews if they so chose.  Very clean, very crisp, very refreshing.  There is no way I would have guessed that this beer as a 9% ABV.  This is truly a treat to anyone that has the opportunity to try it and is the reason I keep drinking New Glarus beer.  Kudos to Dan & Deb!  You two are heroes.