He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

Brewed By: Shmaltz Brewing Company in Brooklyn, New York  

Purchased: 12oz bottle from a 4-pack bought at Jewel in Skokie/Niles, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: Imperial IPA, 10.0%

Reported IBUs: ?

Skokie at 10pm

Bitches love Jewel. Seriously, I was up in Skokie with the girlfriend, and we decided to get some Bdubs. While waiting, I realized I didn't have any particularly hoppy beers on hand...which is a tragedy, because hops + wings = foodvana. Unfortunately, Skokie at 10pm is like...fuuuuck. But they have a Jewel! For those who don't know, Jewel-Osco is a decent chain store that sells groceries. The Chicagoland Jewels have started to pick up on the craft beer craze, and you can actually snag some decent beer at Jewel. I found a bunch of Revolution stuff at the Skokie Jewel, along with the beer I'm drinking tonight. (btw, the Walmart off Touhy is a fucking shithole...please avoid). 

There's some crazy shit going on in Chicago. The Walgreens in Greek Town had Bourbon County Stout, and supposedly had Bourbon County Coffee Stout. I picked up a 4-pack of the regular BCBS at the Greek Town Dominicks (Dominicks is Jewel's competition). The Jewel in Boystown had Madame Rose...and yeah. The elusive and rare beers, coming to your local Jewel.

Anyway...I'm glad to pop open another He'Brew beer. About He'Brew:

He'Brew is part of the Shmaltz Brewing Company. The Shmaltz Brewing Company has two lines of beer: their He'Brew The Chosen Beer, and their Coney Island Craft Lagers. Shmaltz Brewing Company is a craft brewery based in San Francisco, California, founded by Jeremy Cowan in 1996. The company contract brews most of their beer through the Mendocino Brewing Company, and they operate a brewery in Brooklyn New York. The company is known for its innovative beer, eye-catching bottle artwork, and sense of humor. For more information, check out the Shmaltz website HERE. Don't be a shmuck, and drink good beer!

Tonight's beer is described as a Double IPA brewed with Rye Malts. Truthfully, based on the other three bottles I've had, this shit drinks a lot like Founders' Devil Dancer. This beer kind of gets into that "Triple IPA," super malty/hoppy range. At 10.0% ABV, this is on the upper echelon of the Imperial IPA style, and as it touts big malts, it tends to lean away from the usual styling. If you roll over to the Lenny's R.I.P.A. page, you can get a lot of info on this beer (including how the thing is brewed). This beer uses 2-row, Rye Ale Malt, Torrified Rye, Crystal Rye 75, Crystal Malt 80, Wheat, Kiln Amber, and CaraMunich 60 malts; it uses Warrior, Cascade, Simcoe, Crystal, Chinook, Amarillo, and Centennial hops. This beer is also dry hopped with Simcoe, Amarillo, and Crystal hops. It's unclear how bitter this is, but at 10.0% ABV, and with all the hops...yeah. Into the glass!

Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. 

My pour was kind of amateur hour, but maybe not. When I popped the top, this started to gush like a prison break or something. I rushed to get this into a glass, and the end result was 4-fingers of big, foamy head. The head is slightly off-white. /cue prison break joke about off-white inmates. The head picks up some amber; the body of the beer is a hazy amber/orange in low light, with lots of carbonation. Honestly, I don't feel too bad about my pour. This pours like the Devil Dancer or the 1000 IBUs. In bright light, this beer is a murky orange, with slightly latent/lazy mid-sized carb bubbles. The head has mad orange tones, and leaves spunky lacing. It's like an STD tiger. 

The aroma on this beer is crazy. You get fat candy oranges, maple/pine sap, caramel, toffee, and rye. I'm getting some slight floral aromas, and maybe a dash of honey/maple syrup as well. Imperial IPA? Har. 

The taste is like the nose...only with immense hop bitterness. This really reminds me more of the Devil Dancer/1000 IBUs than a straight up Imperial IPA. This is riding that Barleywine-Triple IPA-style-guidelines-don't-real line. And it's fucking awesome. You get a blast of maple-citrus-rye hops up front, with some sap and pine; this rolls into immense bitterness, with woody citrus, grapefruit rind; and the finish hits rye spice, rye bread, and lingering bitterness. Dry. Oh man. This is smooth and creamy as well. I'm getting oranges, lemons, grapefruit, huge sweetness, toffee, caramel, and boozy bite that is well masked but known at the same time. You actually get some booze on the finish with the rye. Nice.

Oh He'Brew. You make such insane...complex beers. At 10.0%, this is very smooth, with a full-bodied mouthfeel, and just a dash of alcohol heat. This is bitter, but I'm not sure how bitter this is. It's hard to tell with all the malt sweetness. Yup, this beer is sugary as fuck. They might as well call it the Diabetes IPA. Palate depth is outstanding, complexity is outstanding, and this is fairly drinkable for such a big beer. Up front you get caramel, toffee, maple, echoes of an aged Barleywine, candied hops, citrus; this rolls into a dash of rye spice, assertive hop bitterness, woody hops, pine, sap, lemon rind, grapefruit rind; the back end features rye bread, a dash of malt sweetness, dryness, and lingering citrus/rye. There's slight booze on the end, and this warms you up.

Rating: Divine Brew

As a standalone beer (without food)...I gotta go with a Light Divine Brew. I'm not okay calling this an Imperial IPA, so there's that too. For my money, this is kind of like a hopped up Barleywine thing...or a Strong Ale. I mean, fuck it. Who cares? This stuff is delicious, and a 4-pack of this will only set you back 10 or 11 bucks. Totes worth it, and then totes worth it some more. This is super aggressive, complex, smooth, and drinkable. And it goes pretty well with wings. The extreme dryness/bitterness mingles well with everything up to Blazin'. At that point, you just want water, and the beer just piles on the hurt. So yeah, I suggest pairing this beer with wings, or a burger, or some nachos. I like this beer so much I could see it becoming part of my usual rotation...recommended. 

Random Thought: Seriously, the Walmart on Touhy is disgusting, it's overcrowded, and it's the epitome of everything "fuck Walmart." Unfortunately...when you need groceries, and you live in a big city, you gotta do what you gotta do. Oh well.