This week's beverage is Goose Island's Imperial IPA. From GI's website:
With our Imperial IPA, we pushed the hop limit to the extreme. We took three of our favorite hops, Tettnang, Simcoe and Cascade and balanced their spiciness with tons of malt… then we added more hops and more malt until this beer was exploding with flavor… you’ll smell the hops from a yard away. What will surprise you is how drinkable it is. Pair it with the saltiest blue cheese you can find.They're doing a mini-double IPA fest over at The Black Sparrow and offering flights (why don't more places do flights?), so Courtney and I ran the samples last night and this was my favorite. I think their notion of the "hop limit" is different than mine -it's definately not as hop-forward your normal DIPA - but it is hoppy and also has alot of fruity, malty smoothness. Actually, it reminded me of a cross between an IPA and a wheat - suprisingly successful, since I don't care for wheat in the first place. Definately interesting and worth a try if you can find it
I haven't had GI's IPA, but I remember liking their Hex Nut Brown Ale very much when I was living in Terre Haute, IN (an interesting time) in the late 90s (an interesting place).
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that GI's greatest fault was being ahead of their time: they pushed for greater national circulation than they could afford during a time when they thought microbrews were just about to explode into the mainstream. Sadly, they had too much faith in the spirit of the 90s. I also had too much faith in the spirit of the 90s, but that's another story.
As breweries like Dogfish Head, Southern Tier, and Rouge have made clear, GI would have done very well had it waited a few years. The result: I can't find Goose Island anywhere out here.
I think it's more the spoty nature of the assinine "three tier distribution system" in this country, where middlemen distributors get to hang the industry and consumers out to dry while they decide what to sell where. Seems like GI's big everywhere I go anymore - they had it allover in bumfuck texas this summer, even. But one thing I've noticed is that there's always SOMETHING that's not available for 200 miles wherever you are anymore.
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