Hop Head Red Ale (Green Flash Brewing Company)

After a couple of turbulent weeks during which I could not post, I am pleased to be back with a new review of a delicious beer.

Hop Head Red Ale took the gold medal in the American-Style Amber/Red Ale category at the 2008 World Beer Cup®. (The silver that year went to Hyokoyashikinomori Brewery, in case you harbored the delusion that Americans had a lock on American-style ales.)

This interests me for a couple of reasons. First, as a beer enthusiast, I'm always eager to learn about worthy breweries, and this high profile international competition is a great way for dedicated craftsmen to emerge from obscurity into the awareness of the beer-loving community.

The second reason the World Beer Cup competition interests me is because it is a chance to know the precise standards by which a beer has been judged. Below is the criteria for the American amber/red ale style from the 2010 WBC Style Descriptions document (downloadable here):

"American amber/red ales range from light copper to light brown in color. They are characterized by American variety hops used to produce medium to medium-high hop bitterness, flavor, and medium to high aroma. Amber ales have medium-high to high maltiness with medium to low caramel character. They should have medium to medium-high body. The style may have low levels of fruity ester flavor and aroma. Diacetyl can be either absent or barely perceived at very low levels. Chill haze is allowable at cold temperatures. Slight yeast haze is acceptable for bottle conditioned products."

Although I admit with sadness that I did not taste all 53 entries in the category that year, it's clear to me that Hop Head Red nails the standard yet forges its own character, and I'm not surprised it was able to take top honors.

The beer pours a dark amber. Very hazy. It produces dense, frothy root beer float-like foam that lingers all the way to the bottom of the glass, leaving behind entire curtains of lacing. The aroma is of sharp, sappy citrus, with some spice and some breadiness.

The taste very nicely balances caramel malt sweetness against heavy-hitting hops bitterness, with peppery and even slightly savory notes. The mouthfeel is quite substantial. Maybe I have rye on the brain from that delicious Red's Rye P.A. from Founders I recently consumed, but I could swear that grain's signature tang is in this brew. Just loads of flavor, and an interesting construction. I detect a little of that 7% ABV at the end.

Overall: I was sorry I had just one -- I verily nursed the last ounce to make it last. Would have enjoyed draining a few more of these and relaxing with the complexities of its flavor.

Featured beer:
Hop Head Red Ale

Honorable mentions:
Red's Rye P.A.

A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale (Lagunitas Brewing Company)

"Petaluma" is right up there with "Sheboygan" and "Schenectady" in my list of towns that sound like they should be the setting of a 1930's comic strip. Happily, in the here-and-now it is also home to the estimable Lagunitas Brewing Company, whose beers are now distributed in more than 30 states -- one of them not even contiguous!

A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale comes in a squat brown bottle with a cute girl on the label. Jeffrey Gentry contributed this to the week nine round of Beer Club. I drank it a little warmer than I ordinarily prefer, because we were in the midst of a 30-hour power outage and everything in the refrigerator was warming up fast...

Best I could tell by the flashlight's illumination, the beer poured a pale amber and retained two inches of white foam. It left patchy lacing in the glass. The aroma was of fresh ruby grapefruit, peach, and pine resin.

My main impression was of pungent hops flavors splashing against the roof of my mouth along with the carbonation’s crest. Grapefruit and apricot nectar are also there in mellow accord, and give the beer a fairly weighty mouthfeel. A tiny backbone of light grain taste pokes through as the flavor recedes. Surprisingly, the beer is not at all bitter in the aftertaste.

This is certainly very drinkable, and I wouldn't refuse it if offered again. But for some reason I was expecting to be knocked out by it, and I wasn't. Reminds me somewhat of the Breckenridge brews, in that I don’t get a real clear statement of what structure they were going for. There are plenty of agreeable flavors there, but they are not put together in a way that makes me shout “Hallelujah!”

Kind of like the girl on the bottle, actually. Despite the fact that she’s wearing a snug-fitting button-up halter and cowboy boots, it’s not entirely clear if she’s supposed to be a farmer's daughter or a temptress. She's nice enough to look at, though, and the beer's nice enough to drink.

From the bottle's label:

So, we're all on collective disability. That's cool. Let's put some ice on it and keep ourselves elevated for a while. So, what's on the tube..? Honey..? Get me a beer from the frige [sic]... Will ya..? Sweetie..? Please..?

Featured beer:
A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale

(Didn't get a picture of this beer poured because of -- you guessed it -- the power outage.)

Lucky U IPA (Breckenridge Brewery)

The night President Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden, I was drinking a 471 IPA from Breckenridge Brewery. (It was a Beer Club contribution from Jeffrey Gentry, I believe.) I got distracted by the television coverage and didn't take detailed notes to write up a review. Watching the spontaneous street celebrations build and sharing the bittersweet catharsis of the long-awaited news, this should by all rights have been one of the tastiest beers of my life. In reality, though, I remember thinking that, for a supposed double IPA, it was a bit muted and lacking in structure.

But I can be remarkably forgiving when it comes to beer, so rest assured that I will give a fair shake to Lucky U IPA, which one of my brethren chipped in to the Beer Club six pack this week.

The beer pours a peachy orange color, slightly hazy. I got three quarters of an inch of foam, with lacing. The aroma doesn't project much -- I had to bring my nose quite near to smell it, but then I pick up something like the crust of fresh baked bread.

From there, my experience is similar to the one I had with the previous Breckenridge brew. The flavor never gets as deep as I expect it to, and ends fairly abruptly. The main characteristic is a nice sweet malt body with the suggestion of apricot. Pleasant enough. Any contribution from the hops is a very understated one. But is this really the profile Breckenridge was going for here -- short and shallow, rounded and circumscribed?

There is certainly nothing unpleasant about the beer, but it lacks intensity. There must be a use for it in the grand scheme of beers -- just as there lurks a proper occasion for use of every odd varietal in the grand pantheon of wine -- but I don't foresee this one entering the standard repertoire. I'll give their Oatmeal Stout a try before I write off Breckenridge Brewery as simply "not my bag." Here's hoping!

Featured beer:
Lucky U IPA

Honorable mentions:
471 IPA
Oatmeal Stout