Tuesday Tasting - IPAs

Hey everyone, so last week I was up in Tokyo for a few days to check out beer bars & also attend the first Japan Brewers Cup in Yokohama. I had a great time and was also able to pick up tons of beers. Which left me with a slight problem... ...my beer cellar is full. This is a good problem to have but as temperatures will start rising soon I decided I  needed to start drinking down my stockpile in a hurry.

That's why this Tuesday Tasting features 3 beers!

I started off in the afternoon with a Lucky Bucket IPA I picked up from the AQ Bevolution stand at the festival in Yokohama.

It's 6.3% ABV and pours a nice orange color with a decent head and a floral aroma I could smell at arms length! I got hints of mango and grapefruit/citrus, definitely some kind of tropical fruit. The flavor is quite bitter but pleasant with a fruit hoppiness first followed by a more piney finish. Pretty nice. It is a really solid IPA, give it a try!

When I got home I decided to focus on two Black IPAs or Cascadian Dark Ales I had. The first one I popped open was my Alaskan Black IPA which I picked up from Yamaichi via Rakuten.

It's 6.4% and pours a dark brown/black with a light thin tan head. The aroma is floral & citrusy. Wow, very nice! Floral hop at first, a mid mouth malt caramel/chocolate and ends on a clean crisp hop bitterness. It is really interesting to see how they merged the two style so well. You can definitely feel this is a true marriage between a dark malty beer and a hop IPA. Excellently balanced, really well made. It was quite easy to drink too! This second Black IPA I found that I really like. the first I found was Mikkeller's Sort Gul, overall this style has been a bit disappointing to me. This beer was really good though!











The third beer for this Tuesday Tasting is Demo a Black IPA from Magic Hat. I picked this up for a great price at Antenna America in Yokohama and decided to give it a shot.

I think the Demo poured slightly darker with a better head than Alaskan's Black IPA. It's 6% ABV and has a nice malty chocolate aroma but barely any hoppiness. The taste is slightly sour at first, mostly malt with not much hop bitterness. This black IPA focuses too much on the malt & doesn't have enough bitterness I think... As it warmed up I came to  like this beer more but it tasted like a fairly normal dark lager, stout or porter.

Overall, I find that a Black IPA is a style that seems really hard to do well. They either wind up tasting like a normal IPA that just happens to be black or like a normal dark beer that isn't particularly hoppy. Finding the right balance between the two seems to be tough. In my mind, a Black IPA has a malty sweet body, hoppy aroma and a taste that marries the two.

So to rank these 3 beers I'd go:

1. Alaskan Black IPA - a very nice example of the style
2. Lucky Bucket IPA - a really nice refreshing IPA
3. Demo Black IPA - a good beer but not what I want from a Black IPA

All in all a nice Tuesday Tasting!

Craft Beer Base's IPA Event

Last Wednesday Craft Beer Base near the Umeda Sky Building hosted an IPA event where they had tons of IPAs available on tap and in bottles at special prices(200 yen off if you were drinking at CBB). I planned on popping by to try the almost impossible to find in Japan Burton Baton from Dogfish Head early in the day before it ran out but as it was raining the whole time I never left!

I started off with a Citra Single Hop IPA (420 yen take out price) from De Molen as I wanted to compare it to the Mikkeller Citra Single Hop IPA. I preferred the De Molen one which seemed to have a fuller body. One thing that really blew me away with this beer was that the head of foam was so long lasting that it was still there by the time I finished my beer!




I was actually quite surprised when I got there as the place was pretty full for 1:30pm in the afternoon. Usually, when I go there during the day it is quite peaceful & quiet. This time there were a good dozen people drinking like crazy!

 Everyone was having a good time drinking IPAs so I ordered a Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Wild which I had been meaning to try for awhile. It had a funky piney aroma but a smooth spicy malt flavor followed by a spicy fruity bitterness. A very mellow IPA packing an 8.8% ABV.


 By this point I realized I couldn't keep going at the same pace as I was waiting to meet friends around 5pm I decided to slow down and grab a bite to eat. Thankfully, CBB had put a burger on their menu for the event. Actually, I have no idea why it isn't a standard part of their menu as it was fantastic! I would gladly pay 750 yen again to eat it, one of the best burgers I'd had in awhile. It really hit the spot~!







Seriously, what a great looking burger~!

By this time, the bar was getting busier and busier.




 

It was time for another beer. I decided to grab a Mikkeller Black IPA, Sort Gul. This was the first Black IPA I liked as here the malts came first. Usually, Black IPAs taste like normal IPAs but happen to be black. I think it is really tough to achieve a nice balance. I thought it was really good but to be honest it was probably not hoppy enough to properly evoke an IPA taste. I didn't mind as I enjoyed it.

Finally, my friends started to show up and we had a great time catching up and talking about our hobby: beer!

 The party was getting in full effect!

The conversation was flowing and it was time for another beer. I decided to try the Green Flash West Coast IPA as I had heard good things and it lived up to the hype as a very solid IPA.

 I then followed it up with a California Sunshine IPA and my first Scuttlebutt beer the Gale Force IPA!

 All in all it was a fantastic event! Now all I need to do is persuade Ai to add the burger to CBB's regular menu...