Friday, April 17, 2009

Deschutes Hopehenge Experimental IPA

Deschutes is one more brewery that has recently (within the last year) entered the Texas market. They are based out of Oregon, and began brewing 20 years ago. The main beers that you can find in Texas are there Mirror Pond Pale Ale and their Black Butte Porter, both very solid beers. However for the beer geek, they are best known for the deep dark Abyss, an Imperial Stout aged in French Oak barrels. This one gets the beer people all excited. Unfortunately we don't get it in Texas.....yet. What we do get is their Bond Street Series of beers. These beers are "hop-forward" as their website says, and many began at the original Deschutes Brewery and Public House that was located on Bond Street....wait a minute did someone say Hop Forward? That sounds like its right up my alley.
The Beer: This is an Imperial IPA for sure. 95 IBU's and 8.75% abv. The beer pours a bright orange amber color capped by a generous taupe colored head. Ahh the nose. There's grapefruit, citrus, apricots and just a hint of bready toasty caramel-y malts. The hops tingle the nose. The mouth feel is thick and resin-y, with an explosion of grapefruit and citrus rind. Bitterness hits all parts of the tongue saturating the taste buds before slowly subsiding, and showing just a bit of sweet maltiness. Its there, but its hidden. It hits your tongue like a hop sledgehammer, but ends up being surprisingly drinkable. It starts off sticky with hop resin, but as it warms the maltiness as well as white peppery notes show up creating a nice balance to the hops. This ones a keeper for sure and gets an A- from me. The folks at BA enjoy it as well.

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