Pipeworks Bunny and the Bird English Style IPA

Brewed By: Pipeworks Brewing in Chicago, IL  

Purchased: 22oz bottle (Batch #379/382) bought at West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago, IL; 2014 (bottled 04.19.2014)

Style/ABV: Imperial English Style IPA, 9.0%
Reported IBUs: ?

It's not Thursday, so obviously it's not an Unofficial Pipeworks Thursday™. But my Thursday night is going to be busy, and I'm in the mood for a big, juicy IPA. I figure you can't go wrong here. About Pipeworks:

Pipeworks has humble roots. The brewery was founded in Chicago in 2011 by Beejay Oslon and Gerrit Lewis. The duo were both homebrewers that met while while working at West Lakeview Liquors. In 2011, they began to raise money for their brewery using the online Internet site, Kickstarter. Olson and Lewis were both educated at De Struise Brewery in Oostvleteren, Belgium. With that knowledge, and the money from their kickstarter, Olson and Lewis created a unique brewery that is smaller in size, and intended to brew smaller batches of beer. The company's motto is "small batches, big beers." And indeed, since the brewery has been around, they've been releasing a lot of one-offs and small batch releases. The goal is to release a new beer every week. You can read more about the brewery at their website HERE.

The Bunny and the Bird's bottle reads:

"Fresh from an overseas adventure, the ceaselessly curious companions Bunny and Bird combined an English malt and yeast with East Kent Golding, El Dorado, and Nelson Sauvin hops to create a delightfully clean, malty English IPA with vinous character. We brewed this ale for Ryan, an intrepid friend who has been with us along our adventure and who can always count on Bunny and Bird to inspire him to live life to the fullest. Cheers to loved ones, full lives and full glasses! Cheerio!"

This one pours into a dark gold, amber color, and kicks up three fingers of gold/amber-tinted head. The body is hazy and looks like gold pennies. In bright light the beer takes on a deep orange color, and you can see spotty carbonation dancing around. The head is fluffy, creamy, and sustaining nicely. Overall it looks the part of an IPA.

Pipeworks Bunny and the Bird English Style IPA 

The aroma here is huge. Pipeworks has always had a knack for making big IPAs and Stouts, but they've really brought their A-game the past few hoppy beers I've had from them. The aroma of this beer is exploding with Nelson Sauvin grape, grape leaf, and big passion fruit. There's a ton of mild spice and earthy hop goodness, with citrus-pepper, fennel, and coriander...but all the spice is backed by gentle and pleasant citrus, probably courtesy of the East Kent Golding and El Dorado hops. I'm getting citrus, tangerine, passionfruit, and juicy hop goodness to the Nth degree on the aroma.

This is surprisingly earthy and wonderful...I don't even think I've had a beer like this before. I'm getting a lot of grape leaf, earthy grape pit, and resinous passionfruit. There's also big sweet hop character in here, with tangerine, melon, orange, and bright tropical fruits. But the tropical fruits never blossom...this is not a "bright" beer, if that makes any sense. There's definitely a candy sweetness element to the hop character in this beer, but the beer retains a darker, leafy edge. Kind of like a London fog. /dadjokes

This is one of the most refined Imperial IPAs I've had from Pipeworks, with an appropriate medium body mouthfeel. There's plenty of carbonation to smooth things out, and although this has some backing caramel malts, it retains a nice hoppy edge. You wouldn't know this was 9.0%, so don't boof and drive. Palate depth is above-average, and this is moderately complex. This isn't a world destroyer, but it's no slouch either. Up front: big Nelson Sauvin grape leaf, grape pit, and bitter passion fruit wrapped up in a nice malty sweet body; the mids continue with some mildly resinous and grapey hops, adding layers of tangerine, orange, and melon sweetness; the back end finishes bitter with lingering hops and some lingering malt goodness. Well executed and tasty.

Rating: Above-Average (3.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Decent Above-Average...a very enjoyable offering from the Pipeworks crew, I don't feel bad about picking this one up @ around $10 a bomber. Food pairings here lean towards leafy burgers, anything with cilantro, strong cheeses, and anything that gels well with bright, candy-like hops that have a dark green approach.

Random Thought: Gotta hand it to Pipeworks for having this IPA thing down.

Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA

Brewed By: Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland, Ohio
Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2012
Style/ABV: India Pale Ale, 7.5%

Who is Commodore Perry? He is Oliver Hazard Perry, and he was a United States Navy Commodore famous for leading American forces in a definite victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, in the War of 1812. This victory was a turning point in the battle for the west in the War. Today's beer is an English India Pale Ale as per the Fuggle hops used to brew this beer. This is one of Great Lakes' year-round offerings.

Great Lakes Brewing Company was founded on September 6th, 1988, brothers Patrick Daniel and Conway Daniel. It became the first microbrewery in the state of Ohio. The brewery expanded both in 1992 and 1998, and in 2010 and 2011 the brewery spent over 7 million dollars to improve their brewery and brewery equipment. The brewery produces over 100,000 barrels annuals, and serves 13 states and Washington D.C.. According to the Brewers Association "top 50 breweries list" from 2010, Great Lakes Brewing Company is ranked #22 for beer sales as a craft brewer, and #31 for beer sales in general (in America). You can take a stroll to the Great Lakes Brewing history page to get the full story about the brewery.

If you roll over to the Great Lakes Commodore Perry page, you can find some information about the beer. The beer is brewed to honor Commodore Perry, and the beer is described as both "distinctive and highly decorated." Great Lakes gives a brief history of the style, stating that the India Pale Ale originated in The Bow Brewery in London, and was exported to British soldiers in India. The beer's high alcohol and hop content reduced the likelihood that the beer would spoil, and made it ideal to be shipped across the world. This is basically the accepted history of the IPA, although there is certainly some debate depending on which source you seek out. This beer is brewed with Simcoe (bittering), Fuggle (English hop flavor), and Cascade (citrus/grapefruit) hops, and is described as tasting medium-bodied, well hopped, dry, and fruity. This beer clocks in at 7.5% ABV, and packs 70 IBUs. Let's dig in and see how this stacks up.

Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA

In terms of appearance, I'm kind of reminded of the Ranger IPA I recently reviewed. This beer pours with 3-fingers worth of super foamy, thick, white head. The head is made up of small bubbles, and is much more foamy than soapy. As the head pulls away, there is a ton of lacing on the glass. In low light the head is eggshell colored, in bright light it is white. In low light the beer is more of an amber/golden color, but when held to a bright white light the beer is a wonderful golden-yellow color. There is quite a bit of carbonation rising upwards in the form of tiny bubbles, and the beer is transparent. Head retention and lacing are great.

The aroma is fruity, spicy, and citrusy. I'm pulling out pine, orange, tangerine, some Simcoe notes that aren't pee, a very mild and pleasant fresh orange note that reminds me of orange candies, some pale or grain malt that is playing off the oranges creating a bready and sweet note, and some earthy and mild English hop notes. There is some pungent or oily bitterness in here, but overall this smells fruity and fresh.

Wow, this is quite bitter and pungent, but in a good way with huge hop flavors that really dominate your front and middle palate. The back palate is awesome, with a huge malty finish that is reminiscent of bread, toasted bread, and candied oranges. The finish is bitter and dry, but malt balanced (oddly enough). I'm pulling out pungent and slightly oily grapefruit, orange, tangerine, candied oranges on the middle, pine, hints of mint, mild English hop bite, and some woody and dry notes. This is bitter, but smooth and creamy and balanced by malts. You pick up toasted malts on the back.

This is bitter and sweet, but the palate depth on this is amazing. It really is a palate depth experience. The flavors just assault your palate up front, and never really let up. In terms of mouthfeel, this is medium-full, well carbonated, and smooth. The finish is drying and bitter, but it is not bone dry. Aside from the great palate depth, complexity is medium. Up front is a citrus wallop with some additional hop flavors; this rolls into that sweet middle, with more hops and burgeoning malts; the back end is bitter, pungent, toasted malts, bitter orange hops, and a bitter and dry finish that leaves an aftertaste of malts and hops. At 7.5% ABV, this is very drinkable, and you really don't feel the 70 IBUs.

Rating: Above-Average

Score: 88%

I expend many words to describe the beer I am drinking. To simplify, I would describe this beer as: fruity, balanced, pungent and bitter but pleasant, and easy drinking for the style. And man is that palate depth something. 

Considering that this beer packs 70 IBUs, this drinks incredibly light. This is bitter, but I don't feel like my palate has been assaulted. And that's a good thing. I plan to drink this again, and I'm having a great time trying Great Lakes beers because so far they all have been beyond good. So with that said, until next time, cheers.