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Lawson’s Finest Liquids Chinooker’d IPA

Tim Brady — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:05:20 +0000

From the elusive Lawson’s Finest Liquids of Vermont, the Chinooker’d IPA is an atomic hop bomb – and that bomb’s name is Chinook. This is Lawson’s award winning single hop IPA – with that single hop being Chinook for the slower readers out there. Chinook hops are not for everyone, especially me – but Amy got all hot over this brew. Call me a cascade pussy.

Bitter as hell, with a load of citrus and grapefruit in the taste. Far from poundable, at nearly 7% ABV and with a taste bud destroying hoppiness; Lawson’s Chinooker’d leaves a dry and almost perfumy aftertaste on the back of the tongue.

If you are looking for an East Coast hop monster, this beer certainly fits the bill and has an incredibly high flavor to dollar ratio. I won’t be going back for another, but hell – this is the perfect brew to get Amy all chinooker’d.

Ridgeway IPA

Tim Brady — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:52:39 +0000

A British IPA. Kind of an oxymoron. While Britan may have their share of scary looking talent, they are the William Hung of hoppy beers. Historically I would think that British IPAs would be hoppy – after all the origin of the style itself would lead you to believe that the first IPAs were hopped to the extreme. Fortunately for us, we got all the hops after the revolution, shipped them out west, and today British IPAs are weak and blah.

That said, the Ridgeway IPA surprised me. Fresh hop flavor and a nice malty balance – very flavorful and drinkable (nay – poundable). Dry as a British sitcom and twice as enjoyable. I say cheeri-o.

Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

Tim Brady — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:23:05 +0000

I love the name of this beer. Amy on the other hand just plain loved the beer in general. And no, she didn’t really drink it out of the bottle. (at least that’s what she told me to say)

Hop Stoopid is a big ole west coast beer, which despite what I thought is not in fact an IPA. It’s an Imperial IPA. Which no doubt is a result of when the emperor overthrew the land of IPA and claimed this beer for his own. But enough of the history lesson.

Hop Stoopid is certainly hoppy, but I wouldn’t say stoopid hoppy. Mainly citrusy and sweet. It checks in at 100 or so IBUs. That’s a measure of bitterness for those who don’t know. Of course if you don’t know that, you probably aren’t drinking Hop Stoopid. Especially since the label’s weird image of a falling down barn does little to entice an impulse buy.

A good beer, but not the best of what they have to offer. I like these guys though – funny and creative. Plus clearly Amy enjoyed it. So just try it stoopid.

Bear Republic Racer 5

Tim Brady — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:19:38 +0000

Believe it or not I had never tried Racer 5 before. I have actually tried a couple of solid clones of this beer thanks to one of the Masholes; but never let him know that I had no idea what he was cloning. Now that I have tried the original, I see why he is so into making the clones… Something this tasty deserves to be duplicated.

Hoppy at first – hits you right away but not over the top. Actually a nice malty smoothness to this brew, balancing the whole thing off. It has a real fresh hop to it too. Of course it will not be the kind of beer a hop head will get all excited about, I would imagine it is a bit too malty for those freaks to get their jollies on. But for a more tame hop enthusiast like me – this works just fine.

Good and drinkable, a solid IPA.

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Lawson’s Finest Liquids Chinooker’d IPA

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