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HopLife · 12-27-2012, 09:34 PM

So I am going to be spending the next week in North Carolina with my brother and his family. He is a homebrewer too. Anyway, I am curious what the best East Coast and Midwest beers are for someone who has hophead tendencies.

Last year I really liked the Bell's Two Hearted Ale and the Terrapin brewing IPA.

Thanks

**SiriusStarr** · 12-27-2012, 09:35 PM

Subscribed. I'm moving to the midwest soon from the west coast and am already dreading my loss of west coast ales.

Spintab · 12-27-2012, 09:47 PM

Highland Brewing is a good all around brewery. I've never had their IPA but their oatmeal porter is great. Smuttynose is the bomb but you may have that out west already. And my obligatory Atlanta suggestion is Sweetwater.

HopLife · 12-31-2012, 04:43 AM

OK. I have arrived.

So far the East has not fared well.

First off, on the west coast I never have to buy beer that is room temp. Strange. Especially at 9 and 10 dollars for a six pack. Seems like a premium product would at least get refrigeration.

I tried Dogfish head 90 minute....Oxidized with minmal hop aroma or flavor. Weak

I tried Hoptical Illusion....less oxidized with minimal hop aroma or flavor. Weak I told my bro that if you put a beer out with this name but skimped on the hops so much, out west they would burn your brewery down.

I tried Henry Weinhards IPA... Better that expected...pretty weak, tastes just like hoptical illusion.

The beers out here seem heavy compared to my local affair, Ninkasi, Bridgeport, Lagunitas Pales and IPA. It is almost like they still think an IPA should be balanced...NOT ME, I want hops.

I will try Hopsectioner, or maybe just drink my brother's homebrew. I would get the Bell's two hearted but at $10.50 a six pack it is horribly overpriced. I am used to buying Sierra Nevada Torpedo for $7.99. And given the higher gravity and higher hop flavors, surely torpedo costs more to brew. Goodbye, Bells! Great beer but I am not going to subsidize their ineffeciency.

**SiriusStarr** · 12-31-2012, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HopLife

I tried Dogfish head 90 minute....Oxidized with minmal hop aroma or flavor. Weak

As a fellow Oregonian and hophead, I'd suggest you maybe give the 90 min another try. The first time I tried a bottle was the same experience as yours; just minimal hops and overall boring with some notable oxidation. It had been bottled about 8 months previously (according to the label). I later found and tried a fresher bottle and found it to be a much more pleasant experience that was at least satiating for my hop addiction, if not quite as good (in my opinion) as some of e.g. Lagunitas' offerings.

**hoppyhoppyhippo** · 12-31-2012, 06:13 AM

The real trick is knowing a good beer store. While the downside of going to a place that moves a lot of craft beer is sometiems you wind up with not exactly what you want, but the positive is often it's fresh.

90 Minute should give you plenty of hops, you must have had an old bottle (BTW I've aged 90 minute and I liked the flavor it took on)

As far as warm vs frdged, depends on where you go, one liquor store by me has almost as much fridge space for the craft products as it does for the big boys. BUt others go almost all big boys. I don't really care honestly as I rarely buy beer with the intention to drink it in the next hour. Usually I get it and intend on drinking it in 2 or 3 hours at the most.

**SiriusStarr** · 12-31-2012, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoppyhoppyhippo

I don't really care honestly as I rarely buy beer with the intention to drink it in the next hour. Usually I get it and intend on drinking it in 2 or 3 hours at the most.

Refrigeration isn't for the sake of consumption, though, but rather preserving hop flavor/aroma and preventing staling. From what I've heard, e.g. Russian Rivers refuses to sell Pliny to any stores that can't guarantee refrigeration for the bottles, for fear of a diminished experience for the consumer (caveat, this may be myth).

**hoppyhoppyhippo** · 12-31-2012, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiriusStarr

Refrigeration isn't for the sake of consumption, though, but rather preserving hop flavor/aroma and preventing staling. From what I've heard, e.g. Russian Rivers refuses to sell Pliny to any stores that can't guarantee refrigeration for the bottles, for fear of a diminished experience for the consumer (caveat, this may be myth).

There is some truth to that, but hop aromas go over time anyway. Though I would believe they go slower in the fridge I can get behind that belief.

**SiriusStarr** · 12-31-2012, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hoppyhoppyhippo

There is some truth to that, but hop aromas go over time anyway. Though I would believe they go slower in the fridge I can get behind that belief.

Oh, of course. You're only ever slowing the inevitable; it will fade with time. But it will fade significantly more slowly in a fridge than at room temp (or especially hot), if only just by the Arrhenius equation. I have tested this myself with a case of Hop Czar, in which I had half in the fridge and half in my garage, and the bottles in the fridge stayed "fresh" significantly longer (this was during the summer/fall when the garage was not colder than the refrigerator like now.

EDIT: The point is just that a refrigerated beer is going to stay closer to how the brewer intended for longer than an unrefrigerated one, and thus refrigeration (or cellaring) is often appreciated in craft beer.

ong · 12-31-2012, 06:34 AM

I really recommend the Terrapin Hopsecutioner -- had that when I was out in NC last month, and it's excellent.