10.7 - A Crooked Variety

I love hops.. and when you can showcase hops in a beer, and show what a particular variety can bring to the table.. well, that just makes me happy in the pants region.  Crooked Tree by Dark Horse is a great IPA, a mainstay for years, and they decided to release a variety pack of single-hop variants.. This called for me having a buddy over to sample all three plus the original! Left to Right...

Dark Horse - Crooked Tree IPA
a 6.5% ABV 50 IBU IPA... not a hop monster by any stretch of the imagination, utilizing Colombus, Centennial and Cascade.  All pour a great copper orange, this one having the fullest head.  It's got a tropical/mango nose with rye and bready malt notes.  It's incredibly well balanced with sweet, sticky tropical hops, some pine notes and smooth malts with touches of caramel.  Did I say this was incredibly well balanced?  It's a slightly toned-down west coast-style IPA that drinks lower than it's ABV suggests.  A seriously underrated IPA in a world where hops reign supreme now.

- - 8 Hops!

Edacsac Dekoorc Eert IPA

the Cascade single-hop version of Crooked Tree.  yadda yadda yadda.. how does it taste different? well, there's less tropical hops, more of a piney, orange peel quality that you'd expect from Cascade, with less malt to balance it out.  Definitely more of a hop bite here, same ABV, but the alcohol heat came through a bit more.  Some grapefruit comes out near the end, but way more pine than I'd like, but that's personal taste, and unfortunately, personal taste is the rule of the land in rating beer

- - 7 Hops!

FF Dekoorc Eert IPA

the Falconer's Flight single-hope Crooked Tree..  why didn't they call it Srenoclaf Thgilf?  Idk, whatever, lame, minus style points.  (please remember that Falconer's Flight is not technically a single hop.  Educate yo self, fool)  This one has a more grassy, citrus, woody-type hop aroma.  There's more unabashed bitterness here, less malts backing it up, and less smooth for sure.  I really dig Falconer's, but there's something holding this one back a bit.. maybe the malt, maybe a bit too much age

- - 8 Hops!

Artic Dekoorc Eert IPA

duh.. the goddamn Citra version of Crooked Tree.  As has been for a while now, Citra is the king of hops.. it's almost impossible to brew a sub 8 beer with Citra.  Can Dark Horse fuck this up?  There's the bright, citrusy, grapefruit, tropical hops that Citra is famous for.  Still a bit old (4-5 months) but the Citra is still beautiful here, the perfect balance of hop, citrus and sweetish malts.  If you haven't had Citra, it's incredibly tough to pinpoint the exact flavors it exudes, but when you taste it, you just know, like that 9th sense or something.  I'd normally give it a 9, but the age mellowed it out slightly and gave it a bit of oxidization..  still a very awesome brew

- - 8 Hops!