I Got Your Hops -- Right Here!
Written: Apr 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Plenty of hops in a synergistic lupulin cocktail
Cons: Probably doesn't age well
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| beerfly's Full Review: Weyerbacher Hops Infusion |
The warning's there on the label. No, not that Safety Pansy "According to the Surgeon General you probably shouldn't operate heavy freakin' machinery after having a few beers" warning. It says right on the Weyerbacher Hops Infusion label: "4X more hops than our IPA" and "7 types of hops." You gotta know what you're getting into.
This is a brewery sample Dan Weirback dropped off for me, a new, improved, Hops Infusion with even more hop aroma. I'm lucky enough to live a mile from Weyerbacher's best-performing retail account, and we can get the beers fresh anytime we want. You'll find the beers in an area roughly 60 miles radius from Easton, PA, where the brewery (and their neat little pub!) is located.
Wow, it is improved! Opening this beer is like popping the seal on a hops-scent air freshener; it smells hoppy for five feet around my desk. The beer itself is an appealing shade of amber with a dark orange cast to it, and an off-white head.
That hop aroma is intriguing. It manages to combine the sharply piney and citric notes of American aroma hops like Cascade and Centennial with the earthy, spicy aromas of British/Kentish hops like Fuggles and East Kent Goldings. I am reminded of a magnificent but passed-on beer, Hopus Maximus from the late Strip Brewpub in Pittsburgh, a synergy of five hops. Weyerbacher has surpassed them. This aroma is head and shoulders above earlier batches of Hops Infusion, and they weren't bad.
Whoa, there's a whole barge-load of hop flavor here, too. It's hard to tease them out because there are so many, but it's easy to taste the different ones because they aren't overwhelmed by bitterness. Someone did a great job getting lots of fresh, low-alpha acid aroma hops in here. What a fresh, steaming green hop mouthful. Only three swallows into it I'm (excuse me) belching pure hop flavor already (gross, I realize, but honest beer guys know this is the mark of a truly hoppy beer as opposed to one that is simply bitter).
This stuff is insanely hoppy, it just doesn't stop, it's so hoppy it's fun, I'm laughing out loud every time I take a sip. I like that, beer that's so much fun to drink it makes me laugh. There is a certain sweetness to it that was there in the first batches, a kind of 'honeyed hop' effect that you can get by chewing fresh hop cones. The malt that must be in there to get this beer up to 6.2% ABV donates some sweetness as well.
Food? Don't make me laugh. The only thing this beer's going with is bloody-rare red meat. Although... I've heard from friends that favor pepper-spicy food, habaneros, scotch bells, and the like, that a ripping hoppy beer like this actually will let more flavor come through from a fiery dish. I dunno, I can't handle anything over 3,000 scoville units!
If you are scared by the warnings on the label, you probably shouldn't drink this one; if you don't know what the warnings mean, run for your life. If you think you like hoppy beers, this is a good test of the hypothesis.
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: 79 members
About Me:
One bourbon, one Scotch, one beer, eh? I'll take Kentucky Spirit, Scapa, and HopDevil.
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