Sierra Nevada Beer California Common (Camp #8)

Welcome to the second in a series of 4 tests trying each of the varieties offered in Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp 12-pack. This month, I give the ubiquitously named California Common a try.

The Beer:
One of the first things that I took notice of regarding this beer was the style. The other three varieties of beer in this pack are easily identifiable (Spiced Beer, Double IPA, & Weizen Bock). They say so on the labels or are easily categorized based on description. California Common, however, presented a bit of a mystery to me. Was this a lager? A Pilsner? A....Common? I was a little perplexed. And, as with all my monthly tests, I do no research beforehand but rather allow the tastes, aromas, flavors, and colors help guide my thoughts on the beer. So upon initially tasting the California Common, it immediately struck me as a lager. Was it brewed with bottom-fermenting yeasts? No clue. But the scents and appearance reminded me of  that of a mass-market BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) beer. Or even one of the country's "premium" imported beers (funny story, while in a local bar this weekend, a couple from out-of-town came and sat down next to me & my wife and asked the bartender for a beer list. Now, this bar serves exclusively California Craft Brews. No exceptions, no excuses. Clearly, this couple didn't understand how they couldn't even have Bud Light available --- seriously, they said that out loud --- but when they asked if they carried any "premium" beers, the bartender was perplexed. She answered that many of their beers are seasonal releases, but none are labeled as premium. Well...too confused to continue, the couple put down the beer list and said they were going to go somewhere else because this place was weird. I guess that goes to illustrate that despite a growing craft beer culture here in Southern California, there is still a long way to go before it reaches the mainstream). Granted, there was a little more complexity to this particular beer than a Corona or Heineken; And it was certainly more tolerable with a better (neutral?) aftertaste. But as I continued to drink and made my way on to the second beer, the taste actually grew on me a little and lightened up a bit. That may not make much sense, but perhaps my palate was originally expecting something in line with an IPA (this is Sierra Nevada we're talking about here). However, as I drank more, I started to enjoy it more. Not particularly because of it's flavors but rather its texture. It was light and crisp and brought me back to the days of drinking in the summertime out in the yard while playing cards and getting wasted with friends. You know...what does everyone call them??? Oh yeah --- the good ol' days! By the time I was into my third beer, I thought that this was something I enjoyed because it was remarkably refreshing despite not being outstandingly flavorful. This may have been the first time that I appreciated a beer for something other than it's taste, appearance, or palate. What I appreciated most was its nostalgia!

The Buzz:
Being the least potent of the 4 varieties in this pack and coming from the same brewery; I didn't think that there was any feasible way this beer could make me any drunker than last month's Double IPA. In theory, the brewing process, while inherently different because of the difference in style, should be somewhat similar. Same water, same facilities, same equipment. And in all likelihood they were using similar malts & hops (if not the same type, from the same provider and grown in the same fields). So, how could a beer with a lower abv (6.5% in the California Common versus 8.5% in the Double IPA) make me feel drunker? Of course factors such as my diet, rate of consumption, etc. would play a role. But in all honesty, I don't vary the variables all that much. On Saturday nights (when I almost always do these experiments) I often eat the same sort of foods at the same times of the day. And, being that most of these tests take place over the course of 2-4 hours, there isn't a whole lot of room for wildly different pacing in the consumption. Yet, Sierra Nevada's California Common seemed to get me a bit drunker. By the end of the third beer I was craving a fourth (a good sign that a nice deep buzz has set in). And I was hungry (another sign that, at 11pm, the alcohol has done it's job well). Who knows exactly how or why such an aberration occurred. All that mattered to me was that California Common one again proved itself to be a beer that reminded me of good times of days past.

The Hangover:
So with all this nostalgia surrounding this interesting brew, would my hangover follow suit and provide me with the misery of my past? Well, after a decent sleep and waking up to help my wife paint our newly installed picket fence, I was nervous that it would! All the signs of death were there - headache, aches, pains, nausea, and sweats. The only thing that I couldn't confirm was the telltale signs of emitting alcoholic odors via my sweat. Whether that was present or not was masked by being outdoors and surrounded by fumes of paint. For the first hour or so, I was equally upset that a beer I enjoyed would do this to me, but also somewhat excited that perhaps I'd taken a big step in narrowing down a style of beer that I'm allergic to. California Common had all the traits of a Budweiser or Red Stripe or Coors Light. Except...you know...it was good! The other difference between this beer and those other, infinitely less appetizing beers was that unlike the hangover from those beers, this one disappeared rather quickly. After a couple hours of painting, I came in and had my coffee, took my shower and grabbed a quick bite to eat. Shortly after, I felt more or less fine. The intensity of my hangover from just hours earlier was all but gone. So whereas before I was conflictedly upset, now I was conflictedly elated. What was once a sure link between whatever allergy I might have to beer was now just another complication in narrowing down what (if anything) causes my body to react so harshly to certain brews.

The Verdict:
With such a roller coaster ride of thoughts regarding California Common, one might think that this beer was the missing link in my drinking experiences. But having gone through the full spectrum of thoughts on something as trivial as a beer, I can safely say that in the end this beer was really just above average. I'd certainly drink it again should Sierra Nevada ever regularly produce it. But I also wouldn't seek it out while at a bar or restaurant. Instead, it's the type of six-pack that I'd get when stocking up for a trip to tailgate before a baseball game. Or a day at the beach. Or a bar-b-que at a park. Or a pre-concert parking lot party before a Springsteen concert. Ahhhh, yes...the days of our past. Where we can't go back and can only relive them in our minds and senses. So I'll drink California Common again and it'll help me remember my first summer in my first house.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Double IPA (Camp #29)

Happy America! I've delayed my usual monthly posting by a few days to deliver back-to-back Patriotic Holiday submissions. I'm sitting in the same seat in my backyard, once again drinking a Rogue Brewery Ale (Somer Orange Honey Ale this month) with a rack of ribs on the smoker. It's about 10 degree hotter than it was last month, but equally as relaxing as I celebrate Independence by writing non-nonsensical ramblings about beer.

The Beer:
This month I bring to you the first in a series of four submissions all from Sierra Nevada. They recently released a 12-pack containing 4 varieties of beers brewed in their (somewhat) famous "Beer Camp". I had first heard about this camp over a year ago when I attended the Beers for our Fathers event at Rustic Canyon. Anyone can apply to go, but being chosen is often reserved for those with strong ties to the craft beer community. Whether it be an up and coming homebrewer, a book author about beer and/or brewing, an employee of another brewery, or even just a lowly beer blogger (ahem...you know, just in case someone from Sierra Nevada reads this), people head to Sierra Nevada's brewery in Northern California to develop experimental and unique brews. Some are successful and help spark new ideas at the brewery while others completely fail and embarrass you in front of everyone as they laugh and point and throw things at your head. Some creations, however, are so successful that they find their way into the production and distribution lines at some point. The beers I'll be trying over the next 4 months are some of those special selections.
My first one was a Double IPA, which originated at Beer Camp #29 and has been sold under the moniker "Ghidorah". It was a thick, heavy IPA (as most doubles are) with a significant malty body to it. The usual Sierra Nevada IPA profile was there - grassy, citrusy, resinous. But it was kicked up a notch or two with incredibly strong notes of pine and hops.  I didn't have too much trouble drinking one after another (after another), but I also wouldn't drink this regularly in a bar or a home. It was good, and something that I'd have again for sure, but personally it's not the flavor profile that floors me and propels me to seek it out. But for something created in as an experiment in a beer camp, it's quite impressive.

The Buzz:
Being limited to three 12oz beers for each of these tests (4 varieties in a 12 pack only gives you 3 to drink... mathematics everybody!), I knew right away that I wouldn't be getting knock-down drunk at all. But of the 4 varieties, 3 boast 8.5% abv. This is one of the more potent brews in the pack and there was certainly a distinct alcoholic presence to the beer. As with many of my experiments, I was watching a UFC pay-per-view while drinking. And while I can typically drink a bottle of beer over the course of a 3 round fight (plus intros and replays, etc...), on this particular night each fight was ending in a 1st round knockout or submission. It was uncanny for such a thing to happen so quickly and regularly. It was also fucking with my drinking pace! Instinctively, I started drinking faster once the KO occurred. My brain was trying to finish up so that I could have a new beer for the next fight. While this bizarre Pavlovian trigger assisted in the 1st beer going down quicker than usual, the intense flavors and content of Sierra Nevada's Double IPA helped steer me back to normalcy for beers #2 & #3. Regardless, for such an intense beer with a relatively high abv, they all went down smoothly and swiftly. And that hint of drunkenness was creeping up in full-force by the time the main event started.

The Hangover:
Before going to sleep (and witnessing one of the greatest UFC events in years) I really had no clue what the next morning would bring me. On the one hand, I was pretty well buzzed after the test. On the other hand, I did only consume the minimum amount required for my testing purposes. Then again, it was a beer with a respectable alcoholic content. But it also went down rather quickly. What, oh what, was going to happen to me the next morning?!?! Well, at 7am, I awoke with the answer. A typical (although not necessarily sever) hangover. One that would not let me go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried (which, when you consider the scenario - a Sunday morning of a holiday weekend - makes this a particular bastard of a hangover!) But once I was up and around, the hangover stuck with my like most do - lingering in the background causing mild discomfort, but not really disrupting my day. It is that criteria that allows me to differentiate a normal hangover with that of an allergic one. If I can function normally, within normal parameters doing normal tasks and just feel slightly shitty, then it is what I consider a typical hangover. If, however, I feel awful and smell and look and act as though death is just around the corner...if I can not function on a level that resembles mental and physical competency, then it is in my opinion an allergic hangover. Sierra Nevada's Double IPA was a typical hangover.

The Verdict:
As I wait for my ribs to finish on the smoker, and as I polish of this Rogue Ale, I come to realize that I'm really not allergic to as many beers as I thought. I think that it isn't a matter of being allergic to certain beers or ingredients, but more so being allergic to certain breweries and brewing methods. I know that I'm horribly allergic to the "big three" breweries (that'd be Bud, Miller, & Coors). And I know that I'm allergic to anything Lagunitas Brewery makes. And I believe that after this summer and my series of "Beer Camp" tests, I'll be able to further verify or denounce that claim regarding Sierra Nevada. And then, I might have to consider changing the name of this blog to "Breweries Hate Me"...which just sounds odd.

Brouwerij De Molen 1914 Porter

As I sit out this Memorial Day, drinking a beer (Rogue Double Dead Guy Ale) while watching over my smoker with 6 varieties of sausage and candied bacon in it, it dawned on me that a year and a half of writing this blog hasn't done a damn thing in isolating what ingredients in certain beers affect my body so negatively. Aside from narrowing down certain breweries that I have a particular physiological aversion to (I'm looking at you Lagunitas), all this blog has really done is open my palate to more beer profiles and expand my curiosity into trying new things. It's at the point now where I think about consuming beer daily, not to get drunk, but to taste and experience more flavors, varieties, and processes. It certainly has occurred to me the irony that the name of the blog should no longer be "Beer Hates Me" but rather "I Love Beer". Perhaps there is a certain poetic irony in that.

The Beer:
This month, I had a hankerin' for some porters. I think it was kicked off due to me strong love for Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean. It's easily in my top 3 favorites of all time, but only available via cask from the brewery or select bars. That said, it sent me on a hunt for the next great porter. In both shops & bars, I've had almost a half dozen different kinds this month alone, but for this month's test I decided on one of the rarest and most interesting I've seen - Brouwerij De Molen's 1914 Porter. The bottle alone had me hook, line, and sinker. What more could a guy writing about the intricacies of beer ask for? Every single detail that I want is clearly and cleanly printed right there on the face of the bottle. I knew exactly when this beer was brewed (February 10th, 2009) and when it was bottled (March 13th, 2009). I knew the temperature to drink it at (10 degrees Celcius) and how long it would last if properly stored (5 years). They even provided me with the bottle numbers of this batch (#270 & #271). Personally, this is exactly what I think every small batch brewer should do. Not all labels need to be quite as industrial as these, but that sort of information goes a long way towards the overall experience of a new & unknown beer.

The Buzz:
So what else did this bottle tell me? Like almost every other beer, it included it's abv - a respectable 5.8%. But what it didn't note anywhere (which I have seen others do), is the taste profile. Being a porter, I expected the smokey notes and coffee undertones. What really stuck out for me was the strong aftertaste of toffee. Not necessarily sweet, but nutty and even somewhat ashy. I don't know if I enjoyed it because I was proud of myself for recognizing the flavor, or because I actually enjoyed the taste. Either way, it was very prominent and lingering. And as for the buzz? Well, I was surprised that the label said 5.8%, because despite committing to only drinking 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 bottles (drinking all of both bottles would have 1), put me over my allotted quantity & 2) dampened my palate to the point of no return), I was pleasantly and sufficiently buzzed. It certainly felt like I was drinking something more potently alcoholic and it definitely appeared to be enough to warrant a cap on the night. Unlike last months test that was spread out over more hours and capped with a large glass of water, these beers went down smoother and quicker, thus eliminating any logical possibility of a drive late at night (and by logical I mean, that I was already at home with nowhere to go!)

The Hangover:
Now that I'm 2/3rds of the way done with this bottle of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, it's becoming harder and harder to remember all my notes on Brouwerij De Molen's Porter. Do I take notes? Mental ones my friends, mental ones! I'm particularly good at remembering bullet points about each experiment. As I'm drinking, if something comes across as noteworthy, I make a mental note. Toffee? Yeah, that was a mental note! Being more buzzed than I'd expected off a 5.8% abv beer --- all mental baby! But the hangover didn't really provide me with any significant bullet points to take note of. What I do remember though is that it started out pretty rough. Both digestively & cerebrally, my body was a-hurtin'. But that dissipated over time as a natural hangover would normally do. Granted, we're not talking minutes but within 5 hours of waking up, I was back to normal. Or atleast as normal as I could be after drinking 48oz of rare porter while watching two episodes of the phenomenal "Treme" the night before.

The Verdict:
With so many ups & downs with Brouwerij's 1914 Porter, it really did take me a moment to consider if I was indeed allergic to something within this beer or not. It tasted good, but not amazing. It got me drunk, but wasn't particularly potent. I was hungover, but certainly not destroyed. This rare beer in an awesome bottle provided as many paradoxes as this paragraph; But at the end of the day, my gut & experience tells me that I am not infact allergic to this beer or any of it's components. However, because of the truly amazing labels that this brewery provided, I did pick up 2 other smaller bottles that they put out: an INTENSE barleywine ("Bommen & Granaten") which measured at a crazy 16% abv that I couldn't even finish a single 12oz bottle of, and a highly respected imperial stout ("Hel & Verdoemenis") that I've yet to try. All in all, I will continue to try our Brouwerij De Molen's offerings where I can find them, if for nothing else, the beer geek inside me can't help myself..

Oskar Blues Gordon

For the first time since my inaugural post back in December 2009, I take a crack at a craft brew in a can. Oskar Blues Gordon (which interestingly enough is no longer called Gordon, but rather G'Knight) is my second attempt at analyzing a canned beer for this experiment and there were some similarities, but definitely more differences from the last time I drank out of a can.

The Beer:

There were a lot of things about Gordon that I had trouble with. To begin, this beer has been a part of my collection of beers longer than any other at the time I decided to try it out. I bought it nearly 7 months ago when I heard that Oskar Blues could no longer sell it under the name "Gordon". Some lawsuit (which I believe came from Gordon Biersch, but I could have totally just made that up) forced them to rebrand the beer as "G'Knight". Realizing that the can would become something of a collectors item, I snatched up a 4-pack and stashed it away. But after some time it dawned on me that I'm not really one to collect things like beer cans or bottles. I don't really collect anything at all. Comic books and pop art prints are about all that I have collections of. So I chose to take out this well-respected beer and use it as one of my test subjects. I also chose to bring it with me to my buddy Mark's 31st birthday. Because if you can't share a 7 month old beer with good friends, then who can you share it with?

As far as how the beer tasted, it was a hop driven IPA with strong notes of caramel and fruit. The bitterness from the hops were carefully balanced with a sweet aftertaste. It wasn't the greatest IPA I've ever had but it wasn't the worst. It wasn't the hoppiest or heaviest. But that may just be my own taste and preference. Someone else might tell you that this beer is numero uno and that I'm just a dumbass.

The Buzz:

Regardless of where it stands on my all-time greatest beer list, one thing it certainly excelled at was getting me nicely buzzed. At 8.7% abv, it was deceptively smooth and easy to knock back the entire 4-pack throughout the party. With that level of alcoholic content, Gordon actually qualifies as an Imperial IPA (or double IPA in some circles...some disrespectful circles if you ask me). Whatever you call it though, there's no doubt that I probably shouldn't have driven home. No, I didn't drive drunk...I had several glasses of water and waited a couple hours after my last beer to get behind the wheel. But regardless, it would've been an uncomfortable conversation with a cop had I gotten pulled over. Unless it was one of the cops from "SuperTroopers". Then, it would've been AWESOME!!!

The Hangover:

Apparently there are karmic retributions for making questionable decisions within this experiment. Because after safely navigating my way home from Mark's birthday I had a small bite to eat, another glass of water to drink, and passed out to some Colbert Report on the couch. When I awoke hours later to two hungry dogs, the minions of hell had risen up inside my body and were trying to escape out of my eyeballs. The headache at 6am was like no other. Naturally I took my morning after cocktail for killing whatever demon was festering inside my body and went back to bed. A few hours later and I awoke not feeling all that much better. Fortunately, the hangover was strictly internal. The wife assured me that I did not smell like booze, look like I was hungover, or otherwise display any outwardly symptoms of the impending death I was sure awaited me in the coming hours. But as the day progressed, the hangover regressed. It certainly took its time to go away and it wasn't the worst hangover I've ever had. But it was bad enough to add Gordon to the list of beer I'll be avoiding in the future.

The Verdict:

Oskar Blues Gordon, now Oskar Blues G'Knight, was good. Not great though, just something respectable. I don't know what to say really about this beer because it wasn't the like Lagunitas beers that immediately taste amazing but leave me feeling the next day like every cell inside me has exploded. It also wasn't like Anchor Steam Small Beer, where I hated every aspect of it. I'd have one again. But only one at a time. There was nothing seperating this beer from the ever-growing craft beer collection of IPAs stocking the shelves that warranted the hangover that came with it. That said, I absolutely want to try Oskar Bluess' other offerings, if for no other reason than the company has some killer names for their beers!

Lagunitas SF Fusion: Hop High

It's mystery-month here at Beer Hates Me! I'm tackling an extremely unique brew that, to my best knowledge, is no longer available to the general public. It was brewed for San Fransisco Beer Week 2011 this past February and acquired directly from the brewery from a friend. He was told that it was Lagunitas' SF Fusion: Hop High, and being the die-hard Lagunitas fan that I am, I had to try it out and analyze it for purposes of this blog.

The Beer:
Much like my other experiences with Lagunitas beers, this one tasted amazing. It is considered an Imperial IPA and had the hop quality & quantity to justify that classification. But unlike other IPAs I've explored in recent months, this one lacked the strong pine & herbal qualities that are often associated with double & triple IPA beers. Instead, Hop High brought forth a more fruity and floral sense to it. Even being packaged into a large Mason Jar with hand tightening on the lid, the beer retained the aroma, appearance, and taste of being poured straight from a tap. Whoever was tending the bar where this was poured, obviously has Popeye-level forearms. It took me nearly 15minutes to get that damn lid off!
As for the taste, it wasn't much of a surprise that Lagunitas knocked this one out the park. Every beer of theirs that I've tried has been a favorite of mine and this was no exception. Hop High, despite its name, only hit you with the hops on the initial taste. A few moments in my mouth and the hops stepped back and the malts stepped forward. Perhaps this is where they justified the moniker of "Fusion" for this brew; while at first presenting itself as an IPA, the beer soon transitions in taste to something closer to that of a Barely Wine. The dark amber color of the beer is mirrored by a strong taste or caramel and honey that lasts until the next sip resets your palate with sharp pine & grapefruit. Bitter, sweet, fizzy, & fresh - oh Lagunitas, is there anything you can't do?

The Buzz:
As with the flavor qualities of this beer, the alcoholic qualities were also layered. According to online sources, Hop High was listed with a 9.3% abv. That's quite high for many IPAs, but not unreasonably so for one considered an Imperial IPA bordering on Barely Wine levels of sweetness. For purposes of this blog, I choose to only consume 36-48oz of any beer. Hop High, however, was delivered to me in a 64oz jar. So I figured that if I drank around 2/3 of the jar, I'd hit my mark right in the middle of that required amount. Knowing that there would be no way to preserve the beer though, I decided to share the rest with friends at a party. While I sipped away on glass after glass, a few home-brewing friends took their turns at sampling this once (possibly) in a lifetime beer. They all thought it was great - layered and complex - worthy of the Fusion branding.
It was a good idea to share that remaining 1/3 though, since what I did consume certainly put me in a heavily buzzed state. It came on slow and steady however. Not enough to send me to bed immediately, but enough to know that there was a certain punch to this beer. The bitter sweetness that came with it probably didn't help in slowing down the consumption either. Because the flavors would switch, my palate never got overwhelmed and my brain never said to stop. Thankfully, my dedication to science and to this blog, programmed my brain into quitting once that jar was empty. And thankfully, I was surrounded by other drunks who helped empty it.

The Hangover:
The Lagunitas hangover - my arch-nemesis. It's destroyed me before with Censored Rich Copper Ale & Brown Shugga, utterly ruining both of those beers for me. In fact, Lagunitas has provided me with the worst hangovers of any of the beers I've tried on this blog. But those two varieties were both 6-packs, brewed & bottled in Petaluma, CA then shipped here to southern California and stocked on a grocery shelf. Hop High, though, was brewed and "jarred" up in Petaluma and then personally delivered to me. This beer came straight from a tap at the brewery and was only available for one week in the Bay area. The length of time between creation and consumption could not have been much shorter. Perhaps my hangover issues were a result of some odd bottling process. Or maybe they were so rough because of a weird morphing of ingredients from the time they were added until the time they were consumed. Whatever the reasons were, I was anxiously awaiting the results for this month's test. Thankfully, I did not have to wait long.
As with most morning-afters, I awoke early to dogs looking to eat and pee. And in that time, the headache and dizziness were in full mother-fuckin' effect! So while the pups ate and peed, I popped Advil & drank a glass of water, hoping that this was just a common hangover that would dissipate quickly and quietly while I returned to sleep for a few hours. Alas, that was not to be the case. Waking a couple hours later, the headache and dizziness only intensified. Worse, it was a rare Sunday that I actually had to work. So I struggled through a shower, groggily grabbed a coffee, and prayed for an easy day in the office. Fortunately, it was just me and my work and my hangover in the building and I was allowed to wallow in misery and discomfort all alone. Unfortunately, Lagunitas once again kicked my ass!

The Verdict:
It was a real treat getting to experience this unique and limited beer. SF Fusion: Hop High is exactly what I expected a Lagunitas Fusion beer to be - layered, complex, and incredibly tasty! It really amazes me the depth with which some craft breweries can and will go to simply in the name of creation. They certainly could not have turned a profit on this beer. It was created for one week only in one part of the country. There was no distribution behind it, and yet it managed to be flavorful and complicated in ways other beers never achieve. Although it wasn't the best beer I've ever had, it was certainly one of the better ones, and up there in terms of the most interesting.
Yet, once again, Lagunitas has proven to be my physiological downfall. I simply cannot process their beers in a normal manner. Clearly, after three attempts at three different beers, there is something that Lagunitas does or includes with their selection that my body doesn't agree with. Aside from a chemical breakdown and deeper controlled ingredient test, all I can conclude at this point is that Lagunitas beers will no longer be consumed in greater quantities than the occasional glass (or at most two), unless I am sadistically seeking pain and punishment the following day.

New Belgium Ranger IPA

This month I take a stab at one of the larger craft breweries and their hoppy hoptastic hoppiness - Ranger IPA, a beer I've had before but only here and there, never in a concentrated effort to understand and analyze the tastes, scents, and effects that this beer may have on me.  Due to the fact that this beer was part of New Belgium's "Spring Folly Pack", I was only able to consume the minimum 36oz since there were only 3 bottles of Ranger in the multipack itself. Would 3 be enough? Or would I crave more? Read on astute...uhh...readers.

The Beer:
Ranger IPA is something that I've been familiar with for a little over a year. I first tasted it up in Big Sur at an outdoor wedding under the mighty and majestic Redwoods. There couldn't have been a more perfect setting to notice and acknowledge the superior hops added to this beer. It was bitter but pleasant. It had bite yet was smooth. I got drunk but didn't care. Fast forward to almost a year later and I once again found myself face-to-face with this beer that I had fond memories of. This time however, there wouldn't be shots of whiskey, flutes of champagne, or massive amounts of wedding cake to cloud my thoughts about this brew. Similar to last month's Port Brewing Wipeout IPA, the focus of this beer was the hops. Unlike that beer however, New Belgium limited the variety to three different kinds -  Cascade (citrus), Chinook (floral/citrus), and Simcoe (fruity). Personally, I felt the balance was better than the Wipeout IPA. The bitterness was there for sure, but it wasn't cloyingly so. It defined the beer without overwhelming it. It is exactly the heavy-hop blend that I would give to someone to display the American IPA style without worrying about scaring them off. I suppose that's a huge compliment for New Belgium. That said, however, this isn't the beer that'd I'd choose time and time when I'm in the mood for something hop-heavy. It was good, bordering on great. But not phenomenal.

The Buzz:
There isn't too much to delve into here regarding my buzz. Drinking only three 12oz beers that had an abv of 6.5%, I wasn't expecting to be floored the way Barely Wines or Imperial Stouts might do to me at similar quantities. But I did feel that nice low-level buzz during and after the third beer. It's that perfect buzz that I relate to summertime Sunday's on vacation. The type of buzz that is perfectly acceptable for the middle of the afternoon while starting the grill or smoker and hanging out with your dogs enjoying the warm sun and crisp breeze. It's the buzz that extends for hours on end culminating in an early evening power nap to the sounds of live recordings of Pearl Jam or Springsteen. It's that buzz that perfectly sets up an epic night of partying and/or good times with good friends. How ironic then, that I had this buzz mid-February in 40 degree California rain on the couch alone while I watched a UFC event that featured a man knocking out another man by kicking him square in the face and then thanking Steven Segal for showing him that move (the previous sentence is all entirely true...go research it). So while Ranger IPA provided a good buzz, this was one of those instances where I wish I had had a fourth beer to extend that good-time feeling just a little longer.

The Hangover:
After a few days and even weeks passed, I can say for certainty that I had no hangover whatsoever from Ranger IPA. However, at the time - the immediate day after - it was not as easy to assess. You see, during the day of the test, I had a two-hour Muay Thai Kickboxing class that completely destroyed me. My coach for some reason or another decided to turn it up to 11 and beat us into the ground. Imagine one of those Bootcamp Fitness classes but with boxing gloves and full contact combat. Now imagine that for 120 minutes non-stop, culminating in a one-on-one with the coach himself (a seasoned professional fighter). Well, needless to say, my body was bruised and battered inside and out. And while a night of nursing 3 beers helped soothe those pains, the following morning only highlighted all those ailments the beer was covering the night before. Walking, talking, and interacting with anything outside of a couch were all too taxing for my body. My wife even questioned if I was hungover or not, but the pains were strictly external and certainly equated to the intensity of my exercise and not the severity of my consumption.


The Verdict:
So New Belgium's Ranger IPA seems to harbor all the qualities and complexities of a stereotypical Mendoza brew. Its perfectly acceptable for any time you need a quality hop-heavy beer and would even do well in the summer when you want something heavier than session beer to drink throughout the day. And furthermore, it's a perfect beer for New Belgium to pack inside their new Folly Pack. Alongside their other offerings, it's easy to see why New Belgium is now behind only Sierra Nevada & Sam Adams in terms of craft brewery size. I'd be interested in revisiting Ranger IPA in the future for many different occasions, but I don't know how often I'd choose it over another brew when walking the aisles or picking from tap lists.