Beware the Ales of March

A few new pours hit my palate this weekend. This was a hoppier batch than my usual tasting choices, but mostly worthwhile. Expect a report from the East Nashville Beer Festival as soon as I can de-clutter my brain on Sunday. Hope that I can navigate the long lines to find a few choice brews. 



New Elevation for Oskar Blues
Sampled: March 24, 2012
Between the success of Dale's Pale Ale and Gubna Imperial IPA, it was easy to miss the gap in Oskar Blues lineup. The Colorado pioneer of craft brew canning recently remedied the oversight in a big way, adding Deviant Dale's Indian Pale Ale in 16 oz. cans.

With the crack of the can, Deviant Dale’s IPA unleashes hoppy aromas. In the glass, pine resin, spruce tips, plus lots of leafy and grassy tones. In nose and body, Deviant Dale’s reminds me heavily of a fresh-hop IPA. Perhaps canning allows the brewer to better preserve those elusive fresh-hop flavors. Citrus is slightly muted, with fingers of tea leaves, grapefruit, lemon, and burnt orange emerging from the amber body. The bright bitterness of the finish is hardly unanticipated. Tasted in a vacuum, this IPA won’t convert anyone to the hophead cause, but it’s another well-constructed addition to the Oskar Blues family. It has enough grit and balance to please most palates. For occasions calling for cans, Deviant Dale’s should challenge for a spot in the cooler.

Calfkiller Scorned Hooker IPA
Sampled: March 23, 2012 (at the Village Tavern)
Thanks to its Belgian yeast, this one hardly resembles IPA at all. Instead of dumped hops into a Belgian-style tripel, Calfkiller brews a pretty traditional IPA with a Belgian yeast. The hops have some flashes of bitterness. Definitely not English varieties like Fuggles or Kent Golding, these hops are not from the Pacific Northwest either. Prior to a slightly bitter finish, there’s an uptick of sweetness.

Calfkiller uses Belgian yeasts in all its ales, and here it is prevalent among the turgid brown body (they don’t filter their beers either). Scorned Hooker never goes overboard with hops or the bitterness, a surprise with IPA. To often they coat the palate with resinous flavors; this one barely offers an aftertaste. I give Calfkiller props for going a different route with Belgian IPA, but the spark of flavor I awaited never really arrived.

Sing Away: Jackalope Love Bird
 Sampled: March 23, 2012 (at the Village Tavern)
Ah, Jackalope found my guilty pleasure – fruit beers. Seriously, add fruit to the fermentation of almost any beer, and I eagerly await a taste (except lambics – been there, done that). The cloudy orange body bears a tinge of lavender, a sign that the brewers expertly blended the fruit into the ale. No one will confuse this ale for Purple Haze; the fruit is more of a backdrop that cloaks the bubblegum-clove flavors often embedded in wheat ales.

The raspberry influence turns wheat ale’s typical orange flavors into tangerine brightness and tartness. I get whiffs of hibiscus, lavender and chamomile through the raspberries. Tart and lively, Love Bird deserves a summer on the patio. The finish blends those flavors in a way I’ve never quite encountered before. Well, that's not true; the next next I ended up back at the Village Tavern and finished off two more pints. Jackalope, make this one a regular part of the lineup.

Green Flash Double Stout
Sampled: March 24, 2012
A big whiff of nuttiness and roast coffee, bordering on espresso, headlines the bouquet. Green Flash does not shy from announcing its big-league stout. I don’t detect the influence of oats, but the sweet textures definitely prevent it an overload of roasted character. Oily and with a body that leans to the sweet side, Double Stout possesses the elements of many disparate stouts. It finishes with strong hint of chicory root and the return of the dark roast. It’s hard to drum up the words for this one; the proliferation of strong stouts has dulled my interest and leveled my taste buds. At 8 percent, it’s hard to dub this an everyday stout, but Green Flash certainly makes a solid argument.

A Second Spin: Sierra Nevada Hoptimum 2012
Sampled: March 25, 2012
Late winter always seems a fitting season for the most extreme of Sierra Nevada’s hoppy ales, Hoptimum. It has become a high-alcohol companion to Bigfoot Barleywine. For 2012, Sierra Nevada sent out Hoptimum in 12-oz. bottle four-packs, a slight letdown from the 22-oz. majesty of the 2011 version. A few profiteers sacked our store and took off with all but the four-pack I squirreled in the employee stash. Jessica, our resident Californian/IPA lover did not get any, so I split the four-pack with her. In essence, I ended up with slightly more Hoptimum than last year. The second Hoptimum might disappear into the stash for a few months, although double and imperial IPAs do not typically age well; any evidence of dry-hopping can drop off in a few months.

The 2012 version does not change the game, although the label touts its 100 IBUs (which I believe lies beyond the limits of human sensation) and extremes that Sierra Nevada rarely touts. The fruit effectively mutes the black pepper the high alcohol content produces (10.4 percent). The finishing wave is bitter but never painfully so. The torpedo delivery system spreads out the hop character, giving it room to breathe. The citrus depth, with touches of spice like coriander and flowers like lilac, pushes beyond most imperial IPAs. Sierra Nevada uses the same process that makes Torpedo so delightful. Hoptimum receives additional doses of dry hopping, adding an assertive piney, resinous character.