I'm trying to find a beer for an extreme hop head! ME!

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LSDracula

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I like the commercial and craft brewed IPAs I've tried so far, but so far nothing I've tried really has the bitterness that I am looking for.
So far I've tried Widmer IPA, Firehouse IPA, Dogfishhead 60 min and 90 min IPA, Ska Brewing Company Decadent Imperial IPA, Bridgeport IPA, Four Peaks Hop Knot IPA... There's gotta be a few others I've tried too, I just can't remember the names.
So far my favs are Four Peaks and Bridgeport
None of them has really met my desired level of IBUs.
I want something really mouth puckeringly bitter! Something most people would stick their noses up at and not drink.
I thought the Imperial IPA I bought would do it but it ended up being pretty mellow.
I know I need to try Dogfishhead 120 IPA. So I'm looking for suggestions other than that.
 
I know I need to try Dogfishhead 120 IPA.

I don't perceive 120 as that bitter. It's so big and candylike, it ends up tasting balanced to me.

If it's clean bitterness you want, look for Stone Ruination.

I prefer hop character to dominate my DIPA. Pliny, Hop Stoopid, and Hopsickle type stuff.
 
Stone Ruination is the most bitter IPA I know of. I find it to be pretty average and not very complex but it's hoppy as hell.
 
I would agree with the previous posters that DFH 120 is not what you are looking for as it definitely comes off more balanced. I would say go for the Stone Ruination. I enjoy Troegs Nugget Nectar. It is technically an Imperial Amber but the IBU's are around 100. If you still are not satisfied try putting a few hop pellets directly into your glass.
 
Ruination doesn't cut it for me. I like it, but it is not the bitterness that I love. Pliny the Elder (or the younger if you're somehow blessed to be by a bar that has it when it comes out), Moylans Hopsickle, Drake's Denoggenizer, Ballast Point Dorado DIPA was just bottled as was Tongue Buckler which is an overhopped imperial red, and Green Flash Imperial are all my choices.
 
The rogue santa's private reserve which is supposedly just their st rogue dry hopped red with double the hops at each edition says that it only has 45 IBUs but tastes like it has 100 for some reason.
 
For raw bitterness - yeah, go for Stone Ruination. It's not exactly balanced, but it can give you a bit of a thrill to say "wow, so this is what a really really really bitter beer tastes like". It's kind of like when chili heads stand around eating raw habenero peppers. In my mind it was like scraping the bark off of pine boughs with my teeth.

Sidenote - I just tried Hop Stoopid for the first time when I found bombers for $2.75 at a local Fred Meyer supermarket. Very tasty - tons of hop aroma and flavor at half the cost (or less) than Pliny.
 
I've had lots of hoppy beers but I think Modus Hoperandi by Ska Brewing is the hoppiest. I think it tastes hoppier than the Decadent IPA because it has less malt.
 
I second the Pliny, Ruination, and Hop Stoopid recommendations. Also try Deschutes Hop Henge and Bear Republic's Racer X.

Skip the Hop Devil, and DFH120.
 
Well I'll also throw out there The Maharaja from Avery brewing cause I like it and no one else said it. Would like to try Stone's Ruination sometime, but it's not for sale around here.
 
IPAs are my thing and have made up about a third of the beers I have brewed and probably drank and I've had just about all of em.
In my opinion Port Hop 15 is the hoppiest and most bitter regularly available commercial IIPA hands down. Its got such an outstanding balance of light malt character support big, big, BIG hop bitterness, flavor and aroma.
After that I think it probably would come in pretty damn close three way tie for second with Green Flash Imperial IPA, Moylans Hopsickle, Deschutes Hop Henge batch 2 and Avery Maharaja
Third would probably be Lagunitas Hop Stoopid (which is really hoppy but not that bitter tasting), Great Divide Hercules and Avery Ale to the Chief.
I've only had Pliny The Elder from bottle, and both times I was sorely dissapointed and didn't find it to be very bitter or hoppy tasting, just a big hop aroma. I hear its a different animal on tap.
Notable mentions: Bells Hopslam, maybe the easiest drinking Imperial IPA. Alesmith Yulesmith (Summer) IIPA, probably the thickest and creamiest IIPA.

Some special edition beers that are really damn good but I don't feel like I can include them in any list: Stone 10th Anniversary IIPA, wow, 60 IBU but 200 IBU worth of dry hops. Fantastic!
Port 2nd Anniversary (also rumored to be their 3rd anniversary brew) IIPA is the only beer I've ever had that can beat out Hop15 in the hoppiness/bitterness realm, but the flavor fades quickly and its not balanced at all. Too high acidity and not much else going on, and the flavor fades quickly if you try to age it to mellow it down.
 
I just had to jump in and agree with everyone else.

Stone Ruination is definitely a hop bomb, and I also would say don't bother with the 120, more on the Barley Wine side if you ask me. I think Victory Hod Devil is great, and seems hoppier to me than their Hop Wallop. One of my absolute favorites is Great Divide Hercules DIPA, get it fresh and it is awesome.
 
I don't think there is a better high hopped IPA than Deschutes Hop Henge. IMO clearly!

This was kind of a disappointment to me, though it was hoppy and unique. My guess is they're using a different (Belgian?) yeast strain, rather than the usual American/California Ale yeast. It was definitely better after I let it decant a bit in the glass.

I wouldn't kick it out of bed though, if you know what I mean.
 
All this talk about hop bombs... I don't have easy access to a lot of them, but I can easily get most Stone, Russian River and Green Flash Brewing Co. stuff.

Anybody ever get into mixing beers?? In some ways I guess that defeats a brewer's purpose, but then on the other hand...how about a mix of Pliney/Ruination/West Coast IPA?? Or maybe just the last two, since they're more similar color? That West Coast IPA has some really nice floral notes that Ruination (which is mostly Centennial hops) doesn't.
 
Victory Brewing Hop Whallop is by far the most unbalanced slap yo' mamma bitter beer I have ever had. The Hop Devil is much more mellow, I have a difficult time finding decent craft beers in NC, I can get the Hop Whallop from time to time for about $13 per six pack, so I blend 1/2 hop whallop and 1 Miller High Live, and it makes a decent beer and my good beer lasts a while longer.
 
Victory Brewing Hop Whallop is by far the most unbalanced slap yo' mamma bitter beer I have ever had. The Hop Devil is much more mellow, I have a difficult time finding decent craft beers in NC, I can get the Hop Whallop from time to time for about $13 per six pack, so I blend 1/2 hop whallop and 1 Miller High Live, and it makes a decent beer and my good beer lasts a while longer.

Cool. For a while there I was using Sierra Nevada Pale Ale as my "base" beer for blending, as I'm thoroughly familiar with it and can buy cases for ~$26. Lately though my taste buds aren't taking a shine to it--after all these years of hoppy bears, now it seems too bitter to me! The irony!! It seems definitely spot-on in terms of style, but I guess I'm just an IPA snob now.
 
Skip the 120 and the devil and go right on up to Lagunitas Hop Stoopid & Moylans Hopsickle

Agreed with this post.

I'd also maybe add Stone Ruination and maybe Hop Bomb (Bells? I had this only once at a bar in York) as well.

The 120 is liquid gold IMO (if you can get it on tap at the Rehoboth pub - the bottle I had and aged for several years wasn't near as good), but as someone mentioned it comes out pretty well balanced when you are talking 18-20% ABV worth of grain. Some of the others above are more "smack you in the face with hops" kind of beers.
 
I agree with most of the 120 min IPA comments. Its a good beer, but its not really like drinking an IPA. Its a much better beer after about 8 months and up, and becomes a real treat after 2 years.
 
This was kind of a disappointment to me, though it was hoppy and unique. My guess is they're using a different (Belgian?) yeast strain, rather than the usual American/California Ale yeast. It was definitely better after I let it decant a bit in the glass.


I don't know if you got a bad one or what. But it definitely doesn't taste like they used a belgian yeast. It's a pretty straight forward American IIPA.
 
I don't know if you got a bad one or what. But it definitely doesn't taste like they used a belgian yeast. It's a pretty straight forward American IIPA.

Nah, I don't think I had a bad one. Also it literally wasn't bad. Just didn't quite suit me. That said, because of this thread, I will buy it next time I see it just to give it another chance.

This from the Deschutes site, about Hop Henge:
Several pounds of Centennial & Cascade hops are in each barrel with a heavy dry-hop presence to top it off. A blend of crystal, pale and caraston malts creates an overall biscuity characteristic that is dense and muscular, building the alcohol base to support the monstrous hop profile.

I guess the thing I was finding some displeasure in is the "biscuity" malt character. In my experience and taste, biscuity ain't where it's at. I'm not into English ales. I'm a real West Coast IPA 'leetist. Or I should say, my taste buds are.
 
My favorite is Troegs Nugget Nectar. I like Hop Devil and Hopacolypse, and many of the other IPAs, but Nugget Nectar is the epitome for me. I recently tried Stone IPA and I wasn't a huge fan. The hops are very different, almost smells like roses. Doesn't smell or taste like any other IPA I've had.

If you like the grapefruit flavor, Sweetwater (Georgia) makes a nice IPA.
 
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