Whenever I Can
Written: Mar 24 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The full spectrum of hop character
Cons: Hard to find
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| beerfly's Full Review: St. Stan's VHB |
St. Stan's VHB (That's Very Hoppy Bitter) sounds like it's going to be a tongue-ripper, a bitter blast that will crack the enamel off your teeth. But for those who have the courage to order up, VHB is a glory and a wonder. Behold, a hoppy beer that gets the flavor and aroma of hops without overdosing on the bitterness.
Some brewers achieve this by loading the kettle with lots of low-alpha aroma hops, an excellent method that works well. St. Stan's, I've read, "dry-hops" the VHB with distilled hop oil, leaving behind much of the hop bitterness. If it's true, it's a technology that deserves further investigation; it it's not, well, I wouldn't be the first to be bamboozled by the beer press.
Enough of how, let's talk what. VHB lures in the hophead with that bold name, and delivers a bright, light, yellow beer with a paper-white head. It even looks razor-sharp. But as soon as your nose gets within a foot of the glass you'll smell hop: spicy, grassy, somewhat piney. (Oh, to pour VHB from a pitcher at an outdoor table of friends on a late spring day, pouring freely from a foot above the glass and letting that aroma flow down in inexhaustible richness.) Fight your way through it, resisting the urge to just breathe it in for five minutes or so, and you'll be rewarded with a taste that I can only compare to drinking beer inside an operating hopkiln: this is hop flavor, as it is found in so few beers. I cherish it.
Don't, I beg you, drink this beer with any but the blandest of food: a cold chicken sandwich on white bread without condiments, perhaps. I do not wholly subscribe to the idea that every beer (or even any beer) can be "paired" to a food, and this is one that fully deserves to be experienced on its own terms, naked and fresh.
I first came across VHB at the Northeast Taproom, a noted beer bar in Reading, PA, about four years ago. I was laid low by it, and have kept my eyes open for it since, with only occasional sightings. I just had a pig's quantity of it (not enough!) two weeks ago in Philly at McMenamin's Tavern, and once again... I'm looking.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beerfly
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Member: Lew Bryson
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 82 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
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