Something Hoppy This Way Comes
Imperial IPA
10% ABV
Batch #104
Appearance: Pours a hazy golden yellow with a nice two fingers of frothy cream-colored foam.
Smell: Big lemon, grass, onion and dill notes hit the nose pretty hard. There's a nice layer of tropical fruit (pineapple and guava) lurking beneath but the onion and grass are so potent that it's hard to focus on and enjoy it.
Taste: Follows the nose with lemon, grass, onion, dill, hints of lime and herbal spices with a thin caramel malt backbone. I've never had to describe a beer as buttery but that's exactly how this tasted. Didn't pick up much alcohol, surprisingly.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, crisp, and quite smooth and velvety.
Overall, this one just didn't do it for me. I knew going in that it incorporated Sorachi Ace, a unique Japanese hop varietal known for imparting unusual aromas and flavors, but I wasn't sure how prevalent it would be. Something Hoppy was brewed with Columbus and Cascade hops as well but Sorachi unfortunately steals the show. It's a personal preference but I'm just not a fan of this hop. I had heard people use "onion" as a descriptor in beer reviews before but this was the first time I'd actually encountered it for myself and it was a doozy. This is the only double IPA from Pipeworks that I didn't love. Its not a bad beer but I had a hard time getting past the savory onion aroma and flavor. That's really just the Sorachi Ace and if you happen to like that particular hop then you'll probably enjoy this beer. I have another bottle that I'm going to sample this weekend. If it happens to strike me differently, I'll update my review.
Update (3-31-13): Shared another bottle of this with my brother and dad this afternoon. It was just as I had remembered it in terms of aroma and flavor but I found that I liked it even less than the first time around. They too found it less than desirable and we all tended to agree on its smell and taste, which we found buttery and savory with onion, chive and dill notes being the most prominent. I hate to rate a beer less than a 3 out of 5 but I really did not enjoy this beer's flavor profile or aroma. Worse still, I barely found it drinkable. However, it currently has a rating of 90 on Beeradvocate so clearly I am in the minority. I've gotta be honest here, though, and give this is a...
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| 2.5 out of 5 |
Three Floyds brewed a beer using Sorachi Ace hops called Rune Priest and it was fantastic. One of my favorites from them. No onion taste whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure where the onion flavor is coming from. I assumed it was the Sorachi Ace but I could be wrong. The other two hops this one was brewed with are Columbus and Cascade which are two of the most widely used hop varieties in the craft beer market so I doubt either of those is the culprit. I recently had Stone Enjoy By 5.17.13 and it tasted almost exactly like Something Hoppy but I have no idea what hops Stone used for that one.
ReplyDeleteApparently Summit hops are notorious for sometimes creating a funky onion/garlic flavor depending on how they're used (i.e. when they're added during the brewing process). But as far as I know Something Hoppy was not brewed with Summit hops so...it remains a mystery.
Thanks for the comment!