Brewed By: Lagunitas Brewing Company in Petaluma, California
Purchased: 6-Pack from Binny's in Chicago, IL; 2011
Style/ABV: IPA/Wheat Ale, 7.5%
Lagunitas is a brewery I dabbled with when I hit up their "Kronik" or "
Lagunitas Censored" beer back in November 2010. Since then I have been wanting to try more from the brewery because I keep hearing good things. The Lagunitas website has some cool info on the brewery and the beer, and can be found here. The brewery was founded in 1993 out in Lagunitas, California, and has since moved to Petaluma in California. It seems like Lagunitas is run by a bunch of deviant madmen geniuses, and the brewery appears to be a true grassroot movement, if you catch my drift.
Of course, the only two certainties in life are death and taxes, and sex sells. I definitely amended that last part, but it is true. Sex and beer go hand in hand, and if you need any proof watch the commercials during any American or European sports game. At the expense of some tongue-in-cheek fun, the beer today is dubbed "A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale." If the pin-up girl on the bottle is any indicator, this beer is going to bring great mojo.
If a beer is going to bring the mojo, it needs to be sexy. This is a beer brewed with malt, hops...and wheat! All indicators point to this being an IPA with wheat, but Ratebeer has this pegged as an IPA and BeerAdvocate has decided it is a Wheat Ale. Whatever you label it, this is definitely a hop-heavy beer with wheat undertones. The beer is big and juicy in appearance, with a golden-orange body and a 2-inch off-white head. The beer is slightly hazy, with no visible sediment, and has a good amount of bubbles. I do get some lacing, and a one-centimeter head stuck around during the drinking session. If this is an IPA, it is slightly brighter in color than you sometimes get. But at the end of the day it is a sexy beer.
The aroma is where the real fun starts. Giant hops and wheat notes hit you right up front, and they are fresh as can be. The hops are sweet and tropical, and I smell tangerine, ripe oranges, some peaches, and even some strawberry. There is definite grass and wheat as well. Everything in the nose makes a big follow through in the taste.
Before I launch into how lovely this beer tastes, I want to give props to the folks at Lagunitas for putting all that "geeky beer shit" on the bottle. They put the IBUs, the Original Gravity, and the ABV all in an easy to read location. This beer is packing 64.20 IBUs, which is a good amount. This is a big, balanced, juicy beer. In fact, this is one of the juciest IPAs I have had in recent memory. This beer is absolutely delicious, with big bold tangerine flavors, tropical fruits, peaches, overripped oranges, grass and wheat, and some malt which balances the beer but does not steal the show.
The front end is juicy and sharp, the middle is carbonated and full of the tropical and citrus and hops, and the back end is malty and dries out. You DO feel the 60+ IBU punch towards the back end, and it is lovely. It beckons you to take another sip...and another...and before long the whole bottle is gone. Maybe I am an alcoholic, but the drinkability on this beer is crazy. At 7.5%, this beer goes down like a 5% ABV beer. This is super drinkable, oddly compelling, and very original. The mouthfeel is smooth and juicy, the beer is complex and has medium depth, and this is a very fulfilling beer despite how easy it goes down.
Lagunitas Censored" beer back in November 2010. Since then I have been wanting to try more from the brewery because I keep hearing good things. The Lagunitas website has some cool info on the brewery and the beer, and can be found here. The brewery was founded in 1993 out in Lagunitas, California, and has since moved to Petaluma in California. It seems like Lagunitas is run by a bunch of deviant madmen geniuses, and the brewery appears to be a true grassroot movement, if you catch my drift. Of course, the only two certainties in life are death and taxes, and sex sells. I definitely amended that last part, but it is true. Sex and beer go hand in hand, and if you need any proof watch the commercials during any American or European sports game. At the expense of some tongue-in-cheek fun, the beer today is dubbed "A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale." If the pin-up girl on the bottle is any indicator, this beer is going to bring great mojo.
If a beer is going to bring the mojo, it needs to be sexy. This is a beer brewed with malt, hops...and wheat! All indicators point to this being an IPA with wheat, but Ratebeer has this pegged as an IPA and BeerAdvocate has decided it is a Wheat Ale. Whatever you label it, this is definitely a hop-heavy beer with wheat undertones. The beer is big and juicy in appearance, with a golden-orange body and a 2-inch off-white head. The beer is slightly hazy, with no visible sediment, and has a good amount of bubbles. I do get some lacing, and a one-centimeter head stuck around during the drinking session. If this is an IPA, it is slightly brighter in color than you sometimes get. But at the end of the day it is a sexy beer.
The aroma is where the real fun starts. Giant hops and wheat notes hit you right up front, and they are fresh as can be. The hops are sweet and tropical, and I smell tangerine, ripe oranges, some peaches, and even some strawberry. There is definite grass and wheat as well. Everything in the nose makes a big follow through in the taste.
Before I launch into how lovely this beer tastes, I want to give props to the folks at Lagunitas for putting all that "geeky beer shit" on the bottle. They put the IBUs, the Original Gravity, and the ABV all in an easy to read location. This beer is packing 64.20 IBUs, which is a good amount. This is a big, balanced, juicy beer. In fact, this is one of the juciest IPAs I have had in recent memory. This beer is absolutely delicious, with big bold tangerine flavors, tropical fruits, peaches, overripped oranges, grass and wheat, and some malt which balances the beer but does not steal the show.
The front end is juicy and sharp, the middle is carbonated and full of the tropical and citrus and hops, and the back end is malty and dries out. You DO feel the 60+ IBU punch towards the back end, and it is lovely. It beckons you to take another sip...and another...and before long the whole bottle is gone. Maybe I am an alcoholic, but the drinkability on this beer is crazy. At 7.5%, this beer goes down like a 5% ABV beer. This is super drinkable, oddly compelling, and very original. The mouthfeel is smooth and juicy, the beer is complex and has medium depth, and this is a very fulfilling beer despite how easy it goes down.
Rating: Above-Average
Score: 87%
My girlfriend suggested I buy this beer...and I am glad I did. Yes, this beer has helped me find my mojo. But more importantly, this is a really good beer. The question then is: what style of beer is this? I still maintain this is an IPA infused with wheat. This is far too bitter and hoppy to be a wheat ale. But semantics aren't sexy and this beer is. What I really like about this beer are how the sweet hop notes compliment the wheat in such a wonderful way. I also love a juicy IPA that isn't cloying, and this beer is anything but cloying. I highly recommend you cop a bottle or six of these if you can, because this is a much needed twist on the IPA style.
No comments:
Post a Comment