Mendocino Brewing Company is one of those breweries that I didn’t know about until I received one of their beers via a “beer of the month club” package. Out of this package I got two beers, one of them the Black Hawk Stout and the other the White Hawk IPA. Today I’ll be reviewing the White Hawk as it is 60 degrees at the end of January, and an IPA seems fitting and refreshing.
Maximus and IPA are two words that belong together, their destiny is to be imprinted on a bottle of beer. That’s just what Lagunitas did, they took plenty of hops, malt, and yeast to make the Maximus IPA. Clocking in at 72.41 IBUs there should be some decent bitterness, but not so much that it is difficult to create a well rounded IPA.
If you read my reviews you probably know that I normally review a seasonal beer in the season it is for, and I also evaluate it based upon this. There is nothing like good “summer beer” in the summer, or a warming dark beer in the winter. Given this, it may be surprising that I also enjoy drinking beers out of season – it is beer after all.
Even though the holiday season is over you can still readily find holiday beers in your local store. And while they may have a holiday theme, they still make great beers for the winter season. This happened to me recently when I stumbled upon the Lump of Coal from Ridgeway Brewing. Ridgeway hails from the far away land of the United Kingdom and I haven’t sampled any holiday offerings from overseas (that I can think of), so this was certainly one that I had to try.
continue reading »
In a totally unplanned coincidence I have another in New Belgium’s Lips of Faith series to review. This one, called Super Cru, is a 10% ABV Belgian Strong Pale Ale brewed with Asian pear juice. An interesting additive to be sure, and not one I’m very familiar with, or one that I have seen before. When this happens I find that it is best to dive right in.
