Lips Of Faith - Super India Pale Ale (Alpine Collaboration)

Brewed By: New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado

Purchased: 22oz bomber from Binny's in Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Imperial IPA, 9.0%

Reported IBUs: 99

"Oh Yeah! Duffman is failing his sobriety test!

If beer was a superhero, its secret identity would be Tim Drunk. If beer was a superhero, it would have a man-cave. If beer was a superhero, no damsels in distress would be saved, because beer would be too busy filling out paperwork after being arrested for a DUI. If beer was a superhero....

Sometimes I take 3 or 4 bombers of beer with me into the bath tub, and they duke it out, role-play-superhero-style. Obviously I make the macro lager the super-villain. "Oh no, piss-man is robbing the bank again, who will save the citizens of Metropobath!?" And every single time, an American hero comes to the rescue: Super IPA!

With enough hops to pummel any plebeian macro lager, Super IPA comes to the rescue, kicking ass and taking names. But mostly filling out paperwork because he crashed into an orphanage. Again.

Will someone think of the kids? New Belgium and Alpine didn't, since they decided to get together and collaborate over this Super India Pale Ale. New Belgium is, of course:

New Belgium is based out of Fort Collins, and opened in 1991 when founder Jeff Lebesch took his home-brewing into the commercial world. For reference, New Belgium is the thrid-largest craft brewery in the United States. You can read more about New Belgium if you check out their website.

But what about Alpine Beer? The Alpine Beer Company is a small microbrewery based out of Alpine, California. Founded by Pat McIlhenney, the Alpine Beer Company opened its doors in the fall of 2002. Prior to that, Pat worked as an apprentice at a local brewery, until he purchased a brewing system from a local brewpub. In November of 1999, he began operating as Alpine Beer Company, contracting "McIlhenney’s Irish Red” for the AleSmith Brewing Company. Since opening the Alpine Beer Co. in 2002, the brewery has seen more demand than they can keep up with. That's a good thing. The brewery expanded in 2008, and opened up a pub in 2010. The Alpine Beer Company is on the up-and-up, and is one of California's local treats.

That means you don't see much, if any, Alpine beer outside of the local region. According to the Super IPA page, that's part of what makes this beer special. This collaboration features Columbus (pleasant, pungent), Simcoe (catty, distinct), Amarillo (citrusy), and Centennial (floral, citrus) hops. Clocking in at a super 9.0% ABV, and packing 99 IBUs, this beer will cost your waistline 265 calories per 12oz. The aroma is supposed to feature dank pine, grass, citrus, and bready malts; the taste is supposed to be hoppy and warming. Let's glass up this beer, fight some crime, and drive through some orphanages!

Super India Pale Ale

The beer pours a lovely golden-yellow color, with 2-fingers of very fluffy/creamy white head. The body has some nice hints of orange, and the beer appears to be filtered, and is quite transparent. You can see carbonation. The head is really thick and creamy, and it's hanging around pretty nicely with a pinky's worth left atop the beer. As the head falls away, there is some brilliant lacing. There is still a ton of carbonation in this, in the form of mid-sized bubbles, and the beer looks brilliant when held to a bright light.

The aroma on this is really nice, with a lot of (maybe surprisingly) sweet hop notes. There is some resiny/dank pine, big herbal notes, tea, grass, earthy, hint of lemon, and some bready/biscuity sweetness and honey. Pretty nice stuff, this beer leans towards that herbal/tea/grass aroma.

Damn, dat mouthfeel. This is a thick Imperial IPA, and really fills out in terms of malts in the mouthfeel. You get some nice resinous pine dragging across your tongue, along with hints of floral and citrus, and that earthy tea/grass note. There's some big malt sweetness in here, including honey, bread, and biscuit. This definitely has some bitterness to it as well, with some intense drying on the back end. I can feel this one on my lips. There's a slightly soapy character to this one, and you get some peppery/salty spice on the back as well. Onions? Occasionally, I see people reference onions as a taste in Imperial IPAs. I'm pretty fucking sure I get some onions in this as well. Crazy! Tea...grass..onions...nondescript citrus...some definite lemon zest/pepper/salt spice, and a nice rounded malt backbone of honey, bread, and biscuit.

This shit is thick and boozy for an Imperial IPA. I love it. It just fills your mouth and surrounds your tongue. Mouthfeel on this is medium-full to full, palate depth is great, and complexity is moderate for the style. At 9.0%, this drinks pretty well. But this is a big beer. I'm leaning more towards "sip this shit," versus trying to pound it back. There's a lot of carbonation in this helping things out, but this is still fairly chewy and turbulent, and does some damage on your tongue. As it should per the style. Up front you get a blast of bitter, followed by bready/biscuity sweet honey malt; this rolls into bitterness, lemon, dank pine, tea, and resinous hops cutting across your tongue; the back end is lingering hops, onion, soap, and lingering malt body. This fades to dryness, and warms up your tummy with some nice booziness.

Rating: Above-Average 

I'm feeling a Light Above-Average on this. Really nice stuff going on here, and the hops build as you drink this. I can't remember the last time I had an Imperial IPA with such a dominant onion note. Weird, right? I'll confess, this isn't my favorite IIPA - or maybe I'm not feeling it at the moment - but this is a good beer. Really nice resiny, dry hops. I can feel this doing damage in my mouth. The huge malt body also does a nice job balancing out this beer, although at 99 IBUs, the balance really tilts towards total hop domination. Food pairings: humus and crackers or bread, grilled pork or chicken, pasta with a white or cream sauce, pizza, and any of your usual IPA pairings. 

 

Random Thought: I'm reading reviews for this, and there's a lot of references to tropical fruits and mango. I definitely get some hints of citrus in this, and lemon for sure...but I think this leans more towards grass, tea, and earth. This is proof that palates are extremely biased, and what you taste flucuates. Proof that reviews are bullshit. Ha.