Brew Review: Founder's Devil Dancer Triple IPA

Yet another Brew Review here as happens occasionally at Baltimore Beer Guy. This is a "Triple IPA" from Founders Brewing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The bottle says it has 13% ABV, yikes. Founders is famous for their Breakfast Stout, Rubaeus and Kentucky Breakfast Stout.

Many thanks to my fellow beer geek Steve at Summer of Beer who sent this may way recently.

First off, it pours a very, very dark reddish-amber color. Not much of a head, yellowish what did fizz up though. I'm getting alcohol in the aroma right away. Hops too obviously, sort of sweeter hop aroma instead of bitter though. Maybe some malt sweetness too.

... First sip: whoah. Nice, filmy gooey texture that I like in pale ales and IPA's, but um ... this is ridiculously bitter. Surprisingly, it's up front more than back of the throat bitter as the unpleasantness mostly faded away in rapid fashion. That won't last for a full pint though.

... The taste is definitely distinctive, I'm getting some hop flavors but nothing familiar to most IPA's I enjoy. Just an odd brew right here. It comes in real strong but sort of retreats after a few seconds. Struggling to find what to compare it to. I appreciate originality in a beer so it's nice to taste something I haven't necessarily tried before (I've had many triple IPA's, but not one like this).

As far as the hop flavor, I'm starting to summon maybe the BridgePort (Oregon) IPA I had many, many moons ago when I was first learning about beer. There's something similar in flavors between these two although this is a much more aggressive, less refreshing example. If I remember correctly, BridgePort is a British style IPA. There's some things that are quite enjoyable about the Bridgeport and to a lesser degree this Devil's Dancer, but it's a strained revelation of those fun tastes where I like something more upfront.

Their website says this beer has more IBU's than any brewery has documented. Nice, so far I've stood up to them, but its intense. They dry-hop it for 26 days straight with a combination of 10 hop varieties. It is produced quarterly.

... It is starting to sweeten up (malt coming through!) as we go along. More balanced now with a bit of warming and a brief respite for the mouth to sort of get its act together. Not bad, I'd written it off but it's growing on me. Lots of fun little bitter elements if you know how to find them hiding in your mouth. The more I have, the more I realize how drinkable this is, which is surprising how off-putting it was at the start.

This is a good beer for someone chasing hops but who doesn't enjoy the west coast "hop bombs" but isn't particularly in love with the flatter, drab, stuffy British and east-coast style IPA's. It's a compromise, if that's possible for such a potent monster.

Alright, time to finish this sucker. Not bad, definitely improved as I drank it, lots to like, try it if you can get it from a rather famous and talented brewer.

Brew Review: Victory Hop Wallop

Cool name, cool label art, intense taste.

I tried a 12oz bottle of the Downington PA's "Very Hoppy Ale" tonight, poured into a standard pint glass. The aroma reminded me of Bridgeport's IPA, as it poured a cloudy, pale-yellow/gold color with a clumpy but otherwise standard head.

Ok that's getting into too much inside baseball when it comes to description and that's something we'll discuss down the road.

My impression? It tasted like a watered-down Oggi's Hop Juice which isn't a bad thing. The southern California natives in the readership should have an idea what I'm talking about. This is a strong, hopped-up ale, although the flavor still came across a bit faded/light. The bottle had been sitting in my fridge for ~6 weeks so that might have had something to do with it. The taste improved after a few sips, which is ideal and sort of wine-like in its ability to improve with some oxygen and warm air.

The alternative is an increasingly bad-tasting beer the more sips you have, which is never good so we're headed in the right direction here. This isn't exactly something you want to have on an empty stomach (guilty), so throw some food in the gullet before having a taste. Overall I enjoyed this beer, and was swept in by some of the bottle art and well-chosen name. However, it wasn't a great beer experience either.

Verdict: can't complain, an above-average extra-hopped beer from a well-respected, Mid-Atlantic label. By comparison, here's a review from BBG's good friend, Summer of Beer Steve.

For my handful of readers out there, what do you have to say about Victory's Hop Wallop? Beer Advocate readers have given it a 4.08, which rates an A-/excellent. In other words it is not all that far from classification as a world-class beer.