Review: Jai Alai IPA

Cigar City winning a gold medal for its barrel-aged Jai Alai IPA made me want to try its draft-only cousin. I've only heard good things about it and as a hophead I was feeling the urge after reading Cigar City's description:

Jai Alai IPA is a monster interpretation of an American IPA. In fact, it is so big that it equals the alcohol of some double IPAs on the market. Our IPA uses 6 different hop varietals, with Simcoe hops only being used for dry hopping. The rest of the hop additions are blended at different IBU's (International Bittering Units) in groups of three hops per addition in order to create more hop complexity.

The ever-helpful Kat told me that the Cock & Bull Pub had it. So I headed over there on Tuesday night and it was still available. Cock & Bull publican Howie Hochberg tells me that Jai Alai is only sold in 5-gallon kegs (compared to 15.5 gallon "regular" kegs). So it can sell out quickly.

From my notes:

It's orange -- almost red -- in color without much of a head and an intense hop aroma. The taste is great. Hops, hops and more hops. The hop flavor is almost juicy and fruity. This really reminds me of IPAs from San Diego. The body is light.

This is a wonderful beer and the best of the four Cigar City beer's I've had. I can't really do justice describing its hoppy flavor: You just have to try a sample to see what I mean.

I can see why its barrel-aged cousin won that gold medal.

And Cigar City, I have a two-word request regarding Jai Alai IPA: bottle it.

P.S. The Cock & Bull also had Cigar City's Maduro brown ale (another brew I haven't had) on tap, but since I was driving I didn't want to have a second beer. Next time, Maduro, next time ...

A judicial opinion on Cigar City's IPA

Melissa Cole, a judge at the Great American Beer Festival, blogged about the beer that made the biggest impression on her at the festival, and it was Cigar City's gold-medal-winning Humidor Series Jai Alai IPA:

The stand-out beer for me that I judged, in terms of innovation, was the winner of the gold category in wood-aged beers, the Humidor Series IPA, Cigar City Brewing, Tampa, FL. It is aged on the wood of cigar boxes, which is called cigar cedar but is actually from the mahogony family, and the spice and aroma it imparts to the beer is absolutely incredible. The base beer IPA itself was technically flawless and the pepper, sandalwood, vanilla, cinnamon, cedar, leather and tobacco notes that poured off it were more akin to a rum descriptor than a beer but still incredible nonetheless.

As Johnny Carson might say, wild stuff.

My super-helpful newspaper colleague and fellow BeerAdvocate member Kat tells me that the Cock & Bull Pub has had the regular, non-Humidor Jai Alai IPA on tap recently. But since Cigar City's beers sell quick, you might want to call the pub before making a special trip.

Cigar City IPA wins a gold medal

Cigar City Brewing in Tampa won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Their Humidor Series Jai Alai IPA took first place in the wood- and barrel-aged beer category, beating 32 other entries. The GABF is one of the largest beer festivals in the world and this medal is a big deal, especially for such a new brewery.

Here's what Cigar City says about their Humidor Series:

The Humidor Series is a rotating offering of Cigar City Brewing beer aged on cedar. We change the offering for every release so that more of our beers get to luxuriate in cigar box cedar.

Cedar has a more subtle effect on beer than more traditional woods like oak. But, we think that once you taste it you'll agree that cedar deserves a place along side oak in the brewer's wood-aging toolbox. Humidor series beers will vary due to style, but are always a good option for pairing with a fine cigar.

I haven't had their IPA, let alone its Humidor Series cousin. Now I'm even more excited about trying this beer.

Full Sail IPA is just a great beer

A quickie post today. It's been a few months since I bought Full Sail IPA. I picked up some last week and was reminded how good it is.

It's bitter and hoppy in that great West Coast way. Drinking it reminds me of my visits to Oregon, where Full Sail is brewed. Plus it's usually less than $8 a six-pack, which is a bargain for beer this good.

And Full Sail is employee-owned, which is also pretty neat.

My notes:

Great hoppy aroma: citrus and herbs. The hoppy aroma carries over to a nicely bitter flavor, this isn't balanced at all, but that's the way I like it. Hop flavors abound, of course, with a nominal amount of malt flavor. It has a nice, slick body with plenty of heft. Easy to drink and pretty easy on the wallet.

This is the best of the Full Sail beers (Amber, Pale Ale, Session Lager) available in Florida on a regular basis. For hopheads, this is a great default beer.

A final note: Full Sail has best-by dates stamped on their bottles, which is a good way to tell if the beer is fresh, this is one beer you don't want to drink when it's old because the hop flavors will mellow. For more information on fresh beer, check out this previous post.

Review: Improvicasion

Cigar City likes to make interesting beers. Their creativity reminds me of Dogfish Head.

They call Improvicasion an "oatmeal rye India-style brown ale." OK, I haven't had one of those before.

Oatmeal makes beer creamy and adds slickness to the body. Rye, according to Brewingtechniques.com, adds further complexity to beer's malt flavor. It doesn't make beer taste like rye unless a good amount is used. And the India part makes me think they've used more hops than you would normally use in a brown ale.

Here are my notes:

Pours almost totally black with a big frothy brown head. The hoppy aroma was surprising for a beer this dark. It's quite floral. The taste is also all about the hops, with big citrus notes that mix with a chocolate malt flavor. It's bitter and malty and very nice. The body is creamy and works great with the chocolate flavors from the malt.

This one is for hopheads and brown ale fans. Think of it as a brown ale mixed with an India Pale Ale.

This is another great beer from Cigar City. I've had three of their dark beers; I need to try a pale one now.

Review: Mean Manalishi Double IPA

Mean Manalishi Double IPA from Hoppin' Frog Brewery in Akron, Ohio, is one of the most expensive I've had: $12 for a 22-ounce bottle at Total Wine & More.

The Double IPA is my favorite style of beer. They are very hoppy, very bitter and usually pretty strong. Mean Manalishi is 8.2 percent alcohol.

From my notes:

It's ruby in color with a sticky off-white head. Big aroma of hops: citrusy. A big citrus hop flavor with an equally big bitter bite. I'm also noticing big alcohol notes. Oily and slick body.

This beer was not the hops assault I was expecting, considering Hoppin' Frog says it's 168 IBUs.*

It's a fine Double IPA, but at this price there are better, cheaper alternatives. One that springs to mind is Lagunitas Hop Stoopid, which is less than half the price for a 22-ounce bottle.

*IBU stands for International Bitterness Unit. The higher the number, the bitterer the beer. Hops make beer bitter. For reference, Budweiser has about 8.5 IBUs, according to that dubious source, Wikipedia. I've read that the human palate can't detect anything beyond 90 IBUs, so this beer is probably overkill.

Review: IPA "Finest Kind"

The Smuttynose Brewing Co.* from Portsmouth, N.H., is a relatively new arrival in Florida.

But I remember having their beers years ago at the Cock & Bull Pub when it was still on Main Street in Sarasota. I guess they stopped distributing at some point but decided to come back. Welcome back!

They call their India Pale Ale "Finest Kind." I don't know why. But I can say that this is some fine beer.

From my notes:

This beer pours golden in color with some sediment and a big head that reduces to a layer of foam in my glass. It has a light aroma of bread and hops. The taste is nicely hoppy and bitter, with a light malt touch. It's quite bitter, actually. Good smooth body.

Overall this is a fine IPA and I can see why it's highly rated. This is a beer made for fans of hops, but it's not too extreme for the rest of the beer world.

*You have to love their logo: a smuttynose seal.

Review: Hoppin' To Heaven IPA

Hoppin' Frog Brewery from Akron, Ohio, is another new arrival in Florida. It seems we're getting a lot of new beers these days! As our former president said, "Bring 'em on!"

I bought one of each of their three beers that were available at Total Wine & More off University Parkway. These beers had better be good, because they are expensive. From $9 to $12 per 22-ounce bottle, to be exact.

Tonight I decided to drink their Hoppin' To Heaven IPA. My notes:

Pours a lovely deep copper in color with a sticky head that quickly turns into a thin layer of foam. Very strong citrus and earthy hop aroma. The taste is -- no surprise -- very hoppy. Big hop flavors mix with a honey sweetness and earthiness and finish with big bitterness. The flavors are so big I'd almost describe this as a Double IPA. A slick and oily body, thanks to the hops. Overall this is a very nice hoppy IPA. An Ohio beer that reminds me of California.

This is an excellent beer. Though at $9 per bottle, this isn't one I'll be buying often.

Review: Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

Fresh hop beers are relatively new. Instead of using dried hops, brewers use hops right off the vine, which gives the beer a more resiny and floral hop aroma and taste. You have to be quick, though, because hops degrade rapidly in a few days if they aren't dried. I've seen more western brewers do fresh hop beers, I'm guessing because American hops are grown in the west, particularly Washington. Rogue has brewed a fresh hop beer, Hop Heaven, where the hops were picked only hours before being thrown in the brewing kettle.

Fresh hops are only available in the fall. But Sierra Nevada decided to do a fresh hop beer in the spring/summer. To do that, they went to the southern hemisphere. They use fresh hops from New Zealand in this beer. Hence the name: Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale.

I don't consider this a true fresh hop beer because Sierra Nevada dries the New Zealand hops before shipping them to their California brewery. On the 24-ounce bottle's label, they said the hops were picked, dried, shipped and used in a little over a week's time. But still, the hops are dried and aren't truly fresh.

This is the second year Sierra Nevada has brewed this beer.

From my notes on the 2008 brew:

An almost-glowing copper in color with a large foamy head that is rock-solid.

The aroma is all about the hops: It smells of citrus, and, well, hops.

The taste is nice and bitter and hoppy, with just enough malt flavor to provide a slight amount of balance. If you aren't a hophead, though, this might be a bitter bomb.

The body is fine -- possibly even a little light.

Overall, this is a fine fresh hop ale. Probably for hopheads only, though.

I think the 2009 "vintage" isn't quite as bitter as the 2008 brew. It has a real depth of hop flavors and bitterness, but it isn't shockingly bitter. But then, my taste buds may have been further ruined by a year's worth of drinking primarily hoppy, bitter beer.

It's still a lovely hoppy beer. And the 24-ounce bottle looks like a bottle of malt liquor, albeit one that costs $5.49 at Total Wine & More.

Review: Hop Ottin' IPA

It's been years since I had Anderson Valley brews. I visited their brewery in Boonville, Calif., in 2003 during a beer pilgrimage. It's a couple of hours north of San Francisco. And yes, there's not much there. A lovely rural area. They are a recent arrival in Florida, which is great.

Anderson Valley's beers have an illustration of a bear with antlers on them. The label says "The legendary Boonville beer." Bear + deer = beer. Too cute.

California breweries love hops. Not just to make beers bitter, but to give them lots of hop flavors. Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery in NYC, even suggests calling Double/Imperial IPAs "San Diego Pale Ale," after the city that really developed the style.

I bought Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin' IPA during a recent trip to Total Wine & More.

My notes:

A deep copper in color with a big foamy head. Nice.

The smell is all hops. Big citrus and floral aromas.

The taste is wonderfully bitter and hoppy. There's a bit of malt balance, but only a token amount. But as I've written before, who cares? Hops, hops and hops. A real depth of hops, likely from several varieties.

A slick and oily body.

Overall this is a great American IPA. It's very much an example of California's love of hops. A must-have, even at a bit more than $10 a six-pack.

Review: Leviathan (Imperial IPA)

I picked this up at Total Wine & More the other day: $3 a bottle. It's great to see more Harpoon brews in Florida. I thought we were fated to only get their hefeweizen and IPA.

Leviathan is a rotating release from Harpoon. Each iteration is a different extreme beer. They have also brewed a Baltic porter, strong pilsner and quadruple. This is the first Leviathan I've had.

My notes:

Pours a nice golden/copper in color with a big foamy off-white head.

Big citrus hop aroma.

The taste is sweet, bitter and hoppy. Surprise! This is a sweeter double IPA than most others. It is also more balanced: Instead of being a huge hop bomb, it's a large hop bomb. The sweet, almost sugary, flavors offset the bitterness.

The body is light but slick from the alcohol.

This is a fine beer, but at 10 percent, I'd only have one.

Review: Hop Stoopid

My co-worker Kat told me I needed to try this double IPA from Lagunitas since she knows how much I love Bell's Hopslam, which currently tied with Rogue's Imperial India Pale Ale as my No. 1 rated beer.

So when I was at Total Wine & More this week I picked up a 22-ounce bottle for $4.49, which is a great price. I am a sucker for hoppy beers.

I love this beer's name. The label description, which is weird but not the usual Lagunitas claptrap that makes absolutely no sense, seems to indicate that they used hop extracts.

My notes:

Pours a lovely copper in color with a big foamy off-white head.

The smell is all about the hops. Huge citrus notes. The only beer that smells hoppier is Bell's Hopslam, which smells just like Hop Stoopid, only stronger!

The taste is like the smell: Bitter and hoppy. Big, big citrus flavors mix with vegetable hop flavors. Little malt flavor. No balance. No problem.

The body is light, but not watery.

This is a great double IPA. A must-have for hopheads. Kat described it well: Hopslam light. And that's not derogatory.

Review: LongShot Double IPA

This is the best of the three beers in Samuel Adams' LongShot six-pack this year. LongShot brews, as I wrote about in a previous post, are the winners of SA's homebrew contest.

Pours a cloudy amber in color with a sticky and foamy off-white head.The aroma is all about the hops: Herbal, earthy, citrus -- this beer has it all. The aroma reminds me of smelling hops before homebrewing.

The taste is wonderful. Big hops flavors (earthy, vegetable and citrus) and bitterness mix with a slight sweetness from the malt. This is a hop bomb. This must have been dry-hopped with pounds of the stuff. The hop flavors are soap-like, and I mean that as a compliment. Noticeable alcohol flavors.

Great body that's smooth yet also light, perhaps from the alcohol.

A must for hopheads, especially at the ridiculous cheap price SA charges for its Longshot six-packs.

This is a masterpiece and the best beer I've had from Samuel Adams.

Boston Brewing Co.: Please add this beer to your year-round offerings!

If you like hops, you have to have some of this beer. Drop what you're doing right now and go seek it out.

Review: Maximus

I haven't had Maximus, a Double India Pale Ale from Lagunitas, in more than four years. The last bottle I had was a 22-ounce bomber I drank during a trip to Portland, Ore. I visited their brewery in Petaluma, Calif., during a beer pilgrimage several years ago.

This is a very good Double IPA. It's hoppy and bitter, but not in a pound-you-over-the-head way.

Check out my older review at BeerAdvocate.