Grand Teton Trout Hop Black IPA

Last week I was speaking with a good friend who just finished a two week trek from Indiana to Oregon and one of the first things he tells me is what an amazing beer scene there is in… Idaho.  For those of you trapped in the smoggy SoCal beer scene, the hip Bay Area beer scene, or the burgeoning Philadelphia and Maryland beer scenes, this may come as a bit of a shock.  But if you've spent any time in  Oregon, Washington, or had the fortunate opportunity to travel through the Gem State, you're probably well aware that there are some skilled artisan brewers starting to make a name for themselves in Idaho.  And why not?  Situated in the blue mountains, between Yellowstone and the Tetons in the East and the Blue Mountains in the West, Idaho has all the peaks, rivers, and valleys that really can't be called  complete unless there's brewery not too far around the corner. 

One of the leaders in Idaho brewing is Grand Teton Brewing.  Grand Teton was originally started just over the border in Wilson, Wyoming by Charlie and Ernie Otto, two brothers who, like so many micro-brewers of the 80s, were inspired to explore their German and Austrian heritage.  Twenty-three years later, they have a brewpub based out of Victor Idaho that houses a 30 barrel production line and 660 barrel fermenting tanks.  Their signature brews include a pale, amber, ESB, pale golden, and a bavarian hefeweissen and are all made with glacier run off water, which is a nice touch.

In the past six years, however, Teton has embarked on a Cellar Reserve series using specialized ingredients, bottle aging, and a longer production process, lasting anywhere from 3 to 8 months.  The styles on these reserves run the gamit from imperial stouts and scotch ales to maibocks and farmhouse saisons.  Megan bought me this bottle of their Black IPA last hannukah, and I've had it cellared... until now...  The reserve bottles do look really nice and you can't help but feel like you're opening something special.  It's a 1 pint 9.4 fl oz with the wider bottom and thick glass.  The label is full glossy four color print with a custom local artists painting on it, but the material really picks up the light.  Best of all, the bottle comes with a card hung around the neck that talks about the making of the beer and has a bottled on date.  In my case it was July 30 2010.  Since we're almost upon a year, it seems like the perfect time to open this bad boy.

I was a little disappointed to see that they called the style listed as "Black IPA," rather than Cascadian Dark Ale, which I guess just isn't catching on.  Oh well, at least it's better than BJCP's atrocious moniker, "American-style India Black Ale."  Blasphemy!  Can you imagine walking into a bar and asking, "yes, I'm wondering what good American-style India Black Ales you have on tap?"  They'd ask you to leave or perhaps offer you a straw with your beer.  Anyway, enough venting, let's drink this.

The color is brown with a fairly sturdy head.  Aromas are lightly sweet with a hint of chocolate and a backbone of sweet fruit.  Minus the chocolate, it actually smells a lot like Titan IPA by Great Divide with that sort of saccharine powered sugar aroma.  As I really get my nose in there I'm getting a little more cocoa than before.  This is far and away the most unique Black IPA I've tasted to date. The body is definitely heavier than most Black IPAs I've had, which is a good thing, especially when you consider they've been able to preserve the strong chocolate and coffee flavors without getting that chalky mouthfeel that often comes with poorly made Black IPAs.  What's missing though is that overbearing Northwest hop kick.  The hops are tightly woven into the chocolate malts and never really separate themselves in a final bitter blast that you'd expect from the style.  But the bitterness is undeniably present and it's piney essence creeps up ever so slowly until you're left with a very rich and dark bitterness in the aftertaste when you purse your lips.  Otherwise the beer is just an amazing mixture of cocoa and coffee with a hint of smoke that is just a joy to drink.  Even though this departs from the style as I know it, I'm still going to give it 4 stars.  The style is relatively new and I think a fair amount of interpretation should be allowed.  What's more, the drinkability on this beer is just off the charts.

If you're interested in trying one of Grand Teton's brews, you can check out their distribution here.

Trout Hop Black IPA: ****

Deschutes Hop in the Dark

Sorry, we're still in picture-less land for another week or two.  Bear with me.

Black IPAs are slowly, but surely, becoming all the rage, and I have to say, I'm a huge fan.  I don't know why we didn't think to combine big dark grain flavors with big hop profiles in a light body earlier, seems like a no brainer.  But I guess it took centuries of beer evolution before someone decided it's a good idea. 

Now Deschutes has thrown their hat in the ring with Hop in the Dark, which they're labeling as a Cascadian Dark Ale.  Really, we're talking about a Black IPA, but I do like their name and maybe BJCP will take it into consideration.  I recently saw this beer as #2 in Wine Enthusiast's top 25 beers of 2010.  Since I already had a bottle in my beer fridge, I decided it was time to pop it open. 

The beer pours a rich black color, although with some close examination lets in just enough light to actually be considered a dark ruby.  Big frothy head, although zero retention.  Aromas are strongly hop driven, pine and grassy with a black licorice lacing.  Deschutes doesn't list much about how this is prepared, but knowing them, they probably hopped the shit out of it.  Light carbonation on the front end buildling into a grassy hop profile and finishes with a rich toasted grain flavor a bit of smokiness (or maybe burned grains) and finally light hop bitters.  The body on this guy is pretty big and taking a drink is a huge mouthful of flavors.  The mouthfeel is kind of odd though.  The grassy hop flavor has a lot of oils and when they transition to the grains it creates a sort of chalky mouthfeel, bordering on metallic. 

Not to boast, but the beer tastes remarkably similar to the wet hop Black IPA I made a year ago called, Shah Mat.  My beer had a similar flaw in the mouthfeel, although it also had a slightly skunkier aroma from the wet hops.  Therein lies the real trick of getting a Black IPA right.  Mixing big bold roasted grain flavors with heavy hop profiles means creating balance where they don't fight each other.  What's happening in this beer is the two flavors combine to create a third and not so pleasant taste that carries throughout the sip and overtakes the both hops and grain.  Not to say that this beer is bad by any means, but I don't think it achieves it in the way a beer like Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous does.

Hop in the Dark: ***1/2

Stone/Brewdog Bashah

Sitting down to a beer after a long hard day of work, on a Saturday no less.  As I sit back let myself relax into this glass of Bashah, I'm reminded of a mindset, or perhaps ideology, that goes deeper than the craft brew movement.  Regardless of what's in your glass, miller lite or Beer Geek Breakfast, after a long hard day of work, there really is nothing better than something cold and frosty to restore your spirit and vitality.

The Bashah is no exception.  I'm opening this beer with quite a bit of trepidation.  It's been exhalted for its collaborators, Stone and Brewdog, two of the industry leaders.  If you haven't already, you should watch Stone's 30 minute video about the making of this beer.  I was lucky enough to try this beer on tap at the Daily Pint about a month ago, but was pretty disappointed as it had a similar funk to my Shah Mat, leading me to believe that either I had stumbled upon some mysterious ingredient combination of Black IPAs, or my beer had simply gone bad.

It doesn't take too long after opening this beer to tell, that the batch I had on tap had simply gone bad.  Why? Because this is good.

There's practically no head on this beer and the aroma is almost entirely Belgian yeast.  The taste, however, is much more complex.  The front end is mostly hops and carbonation with a slight citrus bend.  The clarity and wildness of the yeast seems to take over in the middle and we finish with an incredibly complex mixture of chocolate roasted grains, and VERY bitter alpha acid hops.  Actually, those two descriptions should be reversed because while the bitter is settling in under the tongue, the chocolate roast subtley spreads out like a final shockwave: definitive punctuation on a very wordy sentence.

The body is understandably light to enhance the IPA qualities.  The Belgian yeast does the job it's supposed to, really enhancing the bitterness of the hops, but plays perhaps too much of a role in the flavor for my liking.  The flavors seem to swing from one to another rather than roll, and a bit of smoothing in this balance could hopefully be incorporated into future collaborations.

Lastly, in Stone spirit, they have adorned the label with typically Stone-esque long paragraph of sometimes wise, sometimes philosophical ramblings.  Unfortunately, this is not one of their better ones as it says little beyond commenting on the elusive and illusive qualities of their beer.  All that aside, it's well made beer with a lot to offer its happy drinkers with 8.6% alc.

Bashah: ****

Mikkeller Warrior Single Hop IPA

Fresh hop aroma with just a hint of raisin like malts comes through in a big inhale. As Mikkeller starts his American invasion, this beer is just one of several sitting in my fridge that I can't wait to try. He has named this beer simply for what it is, a Warrior hopped American style IPA. For those of you who are not familiar, Warrior, refers to the type of Hops he used, not the integrity of the ale. However, there is little need to question the integrity of this beer, as it delivers on everything the nose and front end promises. Warrior hops are somewhat similar to nugget and columbus hops having very high alpha rates of around 15 to 17%. Tasting warrior is quite a bit more neutral flavored than hops like Simcoe and Summit, which have equivalent alpha rates. Simcoe and Summit tend to stand out quite a bit more, while Warrior will be smoother, more pleasing to the non-acquainted hop lover.

The nose and front end have a remarkable citrus and pine flavor, a result no doubt of fresh warrior hopping. The citrus is so bright on the front end that it actually tickles your tongue like I remember from drinking berry flavored Crystal Geyser's as a kid. However, instead of artificial preservatives, this carbonation is thinly bolstered with hints of fresh hops.

The back end mixes a malty raisin, honey sweetness with alpha bitterness that hits the back of your tongue; it's a beautifully crafted balance between the two that I've come to expect from Señor Mikkeller. But that being said, as you delve deeper into the beer, the malty side does seem to take over, which for us west coast purists, is verbotten. Otherwise, nicely done.

Warrior Single Hop IPA: ***1/2

The Shah Mat

For the few who live locally (in SoCal) and show interest in trying my homemade beers, you'll probably notice that it's been a while since I last revealed a new creation. In part, that's because my latest brew is by far my most ambitious and creative endeavor as of yet. But it would only be fair to say that with every great endeavor comes a unique set of problems, and this beer was certainly ripe with them.

After trying Stone's Self-Righteous and Deschuttes' Black Hole Sun, I thought it would be fun to try my own hand at a Black IPA. For those who are unfamiliar and don't wish to read some of my former posts, a Black IPA is a beer brewed with the potency and in the style of a regular IPA, but has a dark or black appearance like a stout. It's just one of the many new inventive styles that are being created by craft beer makers on the bleeding edge. I searched for a bit on the internet and was surprised at the relative few black IPAs that have been attempted. As such, there were only a handful of recipes, none of which I liked. So I decided to take the basic structure of my recipe for Gamma Ray's Bitter Burst (an IPA I made in the spring and was quite happy with) and replace the grain bill with higher luvibond grains.

The recipe:

9 lbs of pale ale malt extract

Grain bill:

8 oz Crystal 40L

4 oz British Chocolate

4 oz Carafa III

White Labs WLP001 California Ale yeast

From Alpha beta hop farm

Rounding out this creation were some relatively fresh hops I got from the Alpha Beta hop farm, which is an organic hop farm in Ashland, where I'm from. I visited the farm back in the fall, and wrote a short post about it here. Steve was nice enough to give me about 3 oz of Cascade and 2 oz of Nugget. Since I had whole hops to work with I decided to try the additions in multiple stages throughout the boil. I've heard of Dogfish Head doing similar types of additions with their 60, 90, and 120 minute IPAs and thought I'd give it a try.

From Alpha beta hop farm

My hop schedule:

80 min 1 oz Nugget

60 min 1/2 oz Nugget

45 min 1 oz Cascade

25 min 1 oz Nugget

10 min 1/2 oz Cascade

0 min 1/2 oz Cascade

From Alpha beta hop farm

Finally, I added about a 1/2 oz of Nugget to dry hop after about a month of fermentation. Since these hops weren't completely dry, you could call it a wet hop, but since they were no longer fresh, I think it's more accurate to say dry hop.

From Alpha beta hop farm

I dry hopped for a month before bottling, and then let the bottles sit for an additional month for a little extra aging. I finally tried this beer in mid-December and was pretty disappointed at the skunky taste that could be best described as drinking a wet moldy sponge that dominated the beer. Now I've made bad batches of beer before and to be honest it took me four tries before I was able to eliminate the skunkiness that often dominates novice home brews. But this taste was very strong and entirely different than the trouble I'd had early on. If I had used a Belgian yeast I could have attributed the taste to the effects of a wild strain, but I had used the California Ale Yeast, which I've had a lot of luck with in the past.

I noticed with my first dry hop, The Resistance, that it really took about a month or more in the bottle to even out the taste and it continued to round out over the following months. With that in mind, I decided to play the waiting game with my Black IPA, hoping that the wet sponge, processed avocado taste would eventually work itself out of the beer.  Here's a picture of me tasting it.  For those curious about the mustache, you'll have to wait until the reveal of my next beer to find out what that's about.

So while we wait, here's a little background on the name I chose. Shah Mat comes from 6th century Persia meaning "the king is helpless/ambushed." It is the origin of our much more well-known phrase, "checkmate." A big motivation behind, and ingredient in, this beer was the fresh hops I received from Alpha Beta. While their name undoubtedly refers to alpha and beta acids found in the hop flower, I wanted to credit them indirectly for making the beer possible. Alpha beta can also refer to alpha beta pruning, which is a search algorithm commonly used in machine playing of two player games, notably, tic tac toe and chess. Since my preferred color of play in chess is black, it only seemed natural to name this black ipa after the hops and algorithm that made it a winner.

One problem though, so far it wasn't a winner. After two more weeks in the bottle there was some improvement in the taste, but not enough to my liking. I waited an additional two weeks, and saw continued improvement, but still lingering hints of a taste I didn't like. I was just about to cross this brew off as a failure, when I happened to stumble across the Brewdog Bashah at the Daily Pint. Brewdog Bashah is a double black belgian IPA made by Brewdog and Stone. I can't say I was a huge fan of the brew, however, it did have the same funk that I had been finding in my beer. Not a huge consolation because it still tastes how it tastes, however, interesting to know that it may have been a grain hop combination that brought it about rather than a mistake on my part.

You may also notice that this is my first attempt at labels.  I based my rough design off some beautiful Dutch beers I saw while in Amsterdam and in that vein named my "brewery," Brouwerij De Isser.  In case you can't read the text in this picture, the labels say: "Shah Mat comes from the Persian phrase meaning 'The King is Ambushed,' and is thought to be the origin of the word checkmate.  This handcrafted ale is brewed and dry hopped with organically grown Cascade and Nugget hops from Alpha Beta Hop Farm in Ashland, Oregon."

And that's the story of the Shah Mat. Love to get peoples' thoughts on the beer and the possible reasons for the taste.

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA

I was a little dubious of this beer having been relatively unimpressed by it's potency on tap at the LA CABAL craft brew fest a few months ago. Perhaps I went in with expectations too high, or I had too many beers that day to truly distinguish and savor this brew. But I walked away that day uncertain about this strange creation. So imagine my surprise when I popped the top on this beastlyness and found that Stone had knocked another wall down in the quest to reinvent beer. As you approach the body you prepare your palette for some crazy intense stout that will dominate your stomach and tastebuds. Instead, your tongue does flips when the weight of the stout is replaced by malt and the finish is replenished by fresh hop flavor. On second consideration, this beer offers a beautiful and unique hop flavor, that is half built on surprise and sustained on fresh, citrus beauty. An absolutely unique creation from the ever inventive Stone.


To be fair to the brewers, when Chris and I tried this we were about 4 deep, which explains the rather short review and drunken pictures. Writing drunk is tough!


Sublimely Self- Righteous Black IPA: ****1/2