Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/118688
GADD'S SIXPACK Hops Happen YOU'VE BEEN CUT BACK TO A FOURPACK THIS TIME AROUND—DRINK THESE IPAS WITH CAUTION! by David Gadd Avery India Pale Ale The intensely hopsy nose on this entry from Boulder practically climbs out of the glass on all fours. In a blind tasting it would at first be a dead ringer for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, but it soon modulates into melancholy Depression Era aromas of empty boxcar and doused campfire. The palate remains a study in ripe, sticky-tasting hops at their most pungent. Brooklyn Brewery East India Pale Ale This outfit in Brooklyn's now-über-hip Northside is growing like a delirious yeast strain in a fermenting tank. But even while the team has upped production, they haven't traded quality for quantity. One of perennials from this group of beer scholars is this bracing East India Pale Ale—probably about as close to the original as you're going to find west of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Like all the Brooklyn brews, highly rewarding. Deschutes Brewery Hop Henge Experimental IPA A bitter triumph of hops, sustained by a gorgeous, lavish body of medium weight and uncompromising quality. Perfect glowing resin color; frothy cake-batter head. I double dog dare you to find a hopsier, richer, more satisfying IPA. Everything a beer should be. Samuel Adams Double Agent IPL Not an India pale ale, but an India pale lager, this hybrid from Boston Beer Co.— part of the brewery's Hopology series— has a hail-fellow-well-met brightness and sociability that makes it as agreeably drinkable as a hopped-up West Coast pale ale. It doesn't plumb the Melvillian depths the way a leviathan-class IPA does, but hey, not every beer out of Massachusetts needs to be Moby-Dick. 72 / the tasting panel / april 2013 An IPA's Best Friend Spiegelau, one of the oldest glassmakers in the world, acquired by Riedel in 2004, is launching the world's first IPA-specific beer glass this month. The glass was developed after many rounds of tasting sessions organized by Georg Riedel, President of Riedel Crystal of America and the tenth generation to run the company, and Spiegelau VP Matt Rutkowski, with input from two top U.S. craft breweries making IPA beer, Delaware's Dogfish Head and Northern California's Sierra Nevada. After taste tests in hundreds of existing Riedel and Spiegelau wine and beer glassware shapes, and eight prototypes tweaked to make IPA perform at its absolute best, Spiegelau came up with what could become the new standard for IPA drinking. "With this glass, a head will stay on the beer all the way to the last sip, Rutkowski explains. " "The inward curvature of the bowl as well as the hollow base contribute to this. The curved walls and narrower diameter of the bowl keep the foam more tightly packed, thanks to less surface area on the beer. The rippled hollow base continually 'recharges' the IPA, releasing more foam and hence more concentrated aroma. " The thinness of the raw quartz silica Spiegelau glass also contributes to ideal IPA drinking. Rutkowski notes that many people falsely assume that thick glass will keep a beer colder, when in fact the opposite is true. Because of heat transfer, cold beer will warm as thicker glasses cool down. Warmer beer also loses its carbonation faster. "Thin Spiegelau glass does not degrade beer in this way, Rutkowski " concludes. www.spiegelau.com