Showing posts with label DIPA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIPA. Show all posts

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Boulder's Mojo Risin' DIPA or A Beer for a Stolen Amp


So I just got back from the Jazzhaus with the news that my bass amp wandered off the premise sometime about two weeks ago. In any case, I'm sure Ric will help me figure something out, but it is incredibly frustrating.

In any case, I'm going to have a beer. Something strongish sounds good, and Boulder's Mojo Risin' IPA fits the bill.

This one pours a fitting bright orange, with a great degree of clarity. The head is quite fine and pours about two fingers worth to begin. This calms quickly to a thin fine white cap. Patchy lacing coats the glass to the end, leaving a nice, sticky mess.

Smell is all Amarillo hops. Grapefruit prevails, with something a little harsher, more along the lines of raw, sticky fresh hops. The double dry hopping probably has something to do this. There is a touch of malt sweetness in the nose, but really this is a hop bomb through and through.

Taste is Amarillo. This pushes not even being grapefruit or citrus-y, just damn hoppy. There is an attempt at balance, but not a particularly good one. Still, the hop flavor is sound. This is by no means the hoppiest beer I've had, there just isn't much else to the taste. Good, but one dimensional.

This is an easy drinker, as it doesn't really challenge the palette. The alcohol content, at 10% is well hidden. All in all, not bad, but I'd like to see more depth from a DIPA. Overall: 85/100

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Three Floyds Dreadnaught (D?) (T?) IPA

This one is a gift from my friend John Monaghan. I've wanted to try it for quite a while.

Pours a hazy golden amber. A big fluffy head issues forth, but rapidly dissipates into nothing. Seriously, not even a ring. So this one loses points on appearance for that. No lacing. Lovely color, but I've seen bigger beers keep an head and have lacing. Ah, the joys of hop oils.

Smells big. Huge hop presence. Lots of orange peel, grapefruit, and even some straight citrus flesh. Sweet oranges perhaps? Maybe I can even see some tar coming through. I can definitely pick up the booze in the nose as well. Seems very by the books, except, this is THE book.

While the nose was big, the taste is enormous. The flavors all follow the nose. The sweet orange taste manages to balance the insane hop load. The flavor is oily, resinous and penetrating. When i say this is balanced, it is balanced in the sense that you aren't simply drinking hop oil. However, this is a hop bomb. The flavors paired very well with some spicy fajitas I made. Using a couple of splashes of this beer to de-glaze the beef, pepper, and onions really tied it all together.

The mouth feel is huge. I can't think of a non-stout that I've had that felt this big. The flavors stay in the mouth as an oily film. Superb.

Overall, one of the better IPA's I've ever had. Not for everyone though. My roommate Gabe described it as "an old man, who is the best at what he does, but have any idiosyncrasies to make him interesting." Final judgement: 90/100