A Beer Worth Buying: Odell Brewing's Tree Shaker Imperial Peach IPA

I was really happy to see Odell's latest 750ml bottle offering at the liquor store last week. It was warmer out, spring had sprung, unlike the last 24 hours, which have proved to some of the snowiest times of the entire year so far in Colorado Springs. The citrusy and peachy promises of this IPA were calling out to me. Fortunately, the beer is also 9.7%, which is certainly enough alcohol to give you that warm feeling on a cold night. So, while mother-nature tries to fight off winter, Odell has released a beer that feels good whether it's freezing out or whether it's more of a t-shirts-for-an-hour type of day.

The beer is super fun. The aromas are very citrusy, with hints of mango, pineapple, and other tropical fruits. It tastes really big, with a sugary sweetness, not necessarily a malt complexity, but it's not cloying either. There are huge citrus flavors in this beer, loads of pineapple, almost like a fruit juice. My favorite part is the search for the Peach flavor, which sneaks up out of the background, rounds out and then fades away very quietly. It's quite nice. There's some bitterness present, considering it's an Imperial IPA, but it really takes a back seat to the more complex fruit flavors. This beer is all about the hop flavor and aroma that compliment and even mimic the subtler peach. 

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

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Full Sail Wreck the Halls brought me home for the holidays

In two entire years, this is the first out-of-state beer that I've talked formally about on the blog, that I've reviewed, if you can call this a review. Lately I've bought a few Full Sail Wreck the Halls and I can't get enough of it. I've been craving hoppy beers this season for some reason and this one has satisfied these urgings. I actually haven't craved hoppy beers since the 2009 Fresh Hop festival in Hood River, OR, which happens to be where Full Sail is located. The festival features a high concentration of fresh hop beers from Oregon and Washington. I was so excited to be there but after a handful of samples I could no longer taste or smell any of the beers that there were there. After an hour I went to Double Mountain Brewing down the street and ordered my favorite beer, the India Red Ale, and I couldn't taste that one either. A bit too much lupulin in one day I suppose. For at least a year I almost never ordered an IPA and I've grown to seriously dislike IPAs and 2IPAs that are so-called balanced out with caramel malts because they can be grossly sweet to me.

Respect the Hops! When Beer is Fresh...

There's a wonderful IPA out there called Blind Pig. The beer is made by Russian River Brewing, the same brewery that makes the infamous Pliny the Elder. A number of people believe that Blind Pig is a better beer, especially if they tend to favor floral and citrusy hops over the piney ones. I used to drink them on a regular basis when I lived on the west coast but haven't had either of them since I moved to Colorado. Really, both beers are fantastic IPAs and both could easily make anyone's Top 5 if they like hoppy beers. When bottled, both beer labels shout and proclaim that these beers are to be drank fresh "Consume Blind Pig Fresh, Or Not At All. Respect Hops." These beers are not to be aged. But how fresh is fresh? Does it really matter that much? I've always had these questions in the back of my mind and well, unfortunately, the other day I truly found out that it does matter...