Thunder Snow Night = Moylan's Hopsickle Imperial India Pale Ale Review

When the winter weather is miserable, most people get snow days, but as a bartender, on Tuesday I got a snow night – and to top it off, it was no ordinary snow night, it was a thunder snow night!  I figured a thunder snow night would be the perfect time to review Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial IPA.  As was the case with my review of FFF Dreadnaught and with Great Divide’s Hercules, I had tasted this beer in the past, but I did not do a proper review.

The first time I tried the Hopsickle, I split a 22oz. bomber with my roommate and my girlfriend and it was very good.  This time, however, I made an effort drink the entire bottle and my results were drastically different.  Maybe this was a beer built for sharing, either way; here are some quick facts about the Moylan’s Hopsickle:

ABV: 9.2%

IBUs: 100+

Brewery Location: Novato, California

Style: American Double IPA

Average Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.14 – Excellent

My Beer Advocate Rating: C-/2.7 – Not Worthy

Current Number of Reviews/Rank in the Top 20 on Beer Advocate: 782/20^th

Brewery Description: Moylan’s Brewery

Bottled On: No date on Moylan’s

APPEARANCE:  What first struck me about the Moylan’s Hopickle Imperial Ale was its haziness; it was a very cloudy and opaque orange color.  My pour was fairly aggressive, but it did not produce much of a head – just an eighth of an in or so and it settled down right away.  Head retention is not Hopsickle’s strength.

SMELL:  Just like the look, orange was the most noticeable characteristic of the nose.  It dominates the aromas as hops and other citrus flavors linger in the background. 

TASTE: The Hopsickle is a distinct departure from the previous DIPAs I’ve reviewed here at 20 Beers in 20 Nights.  Rather than the usual sweetness, this one is all about the hoppy bitterness.  There is some balance early in the sip, when the beer hits the tongue a mild malt flavor is present before giving way to a wave of orange that lasts until the hop bomb explodes.  It is about half way through the sip that the orange flavor suddenly disappears and a tongue-ripping bitterness assaults the palate.  The assault is just straight-forward, bitter hops and lasts all the way through to the aftertaste.  As the beer goes down it seems to be taking taste buds with it. 

MOUTHFEEL:  As I mentioned above, the Moylan’s Hopsickle seems to be ripping the taste buds out as it goes down.  It is extraordinarily dry on the back end and it leaves the palate begging for something to quench its thirst.  After cycling through from the back end of one sip to the back end of another a few times water needed to be introduced to the equation, at least in my case it did.

OVERALL:  This is the perfect illustration of why one needs to finish an entire serving of beer when it is being reviewed.  That first experience I had with Hopsickle was completely different than the last one.  The hop explosion I experienced in the seven ounce pour was fantastic, just like the first third or so of this particular bottle.  After that, however, it just went too far for my taste.  I genuinely appreciate a brewery making an effort to satisfy the true, bitter, hop craving of many DIPA fans out there, but when the second half of the beer cannot be tasted, it ceases to make sense. 

DRAWBACKS:  I feel that I’ve already been fairly tough on Moylan’s for this one, so rather than rehashing what I didn’t like about the beer I will simply recommend that you split a bomber with a friend or two.  It is certainly worth trying and who knows, some people may like to have their taste buds ripped to pieces, I know I like to have mine pushed to the limits.  To sum it up though, like Hunter S. Thompson said “The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”  Well, the Hopsickle has taught me where the edge of my hop tolerance is, something I never really thought I would figure out.

SOUND:  This beer brought to mind my college days when I was a DJ on our campus station and I was deeply involved in the college music scene.  The Hopsickle is one of those bands/songs that all the cool kids know, and are supposed to love, but in reality isn’t that pleasant to listen to.  You can respect the effort, musical talent and complex production that went into the song, but sometimes complexity doesn’t equal beautiful.

Just to provide a little balance here at the end of this piece, I do have to say that many of the other beers I have tried from Moylan’s are outstanding.  Don’t let this piece discourage you from checking picking up a bomber or two from Novato sometime.

Review #3 - Great Divide Hercules Double IPA

Posted by: Stonecipher

Jan. 31, 2011

Last night I was very happy to be sitting down with a large glass of beer after racking my brain all day with class and work.  Like the Dreadnaught, I have tried Great Divide’s Hercules Double IPA in the past, but I did not review it.  I remember enjoying it, but I was also eating at one of my very favorite restaurants in Chicago, Bad Apple on Lincoln, just kitty corner from the Half Acre Beer Company – home of Daisy Cutter Pale Ale.  It’s always tough to tell if the burgers or the beer is better there, the selection of both is phenomenal, but I digress. 

Here are some basics for the Great Divide Hercules Double IPA –

ABV: 10%

IBUs: 85

Brewery Location: Denver, Colorado

Style: American Double IPA

Average Beer Advocate Rating: A-/4.2 – Excellent

My Beer Advocate Rating: B+/3.9 – Very Good

Current Number of Reviews/Rank in the Top 20 on Beer Advocate: 1,184/10^th

Brewery Description: Great Divide Brewing Company

Bottled On: July 1, 2011

By the way, you’ll notice the Avery Brewing Company glass, a Colorado glass for a Colorado beer.  Haven’t been to the Great Divide Brewery yet, but may be making the trip when I’m in Denver and Boulder in March.  That also may have to be the time I review Avery’s Maharaja – One of my all-time favorites that just so happens to be in the Top 20.

So, with the weather getting increasingly worse here in the Chicago Area, I sat down last night to sample the Great Divide Hercules Double IPA and here’s what I found:

APPEARANCE:  Poured a hazy, medium copper into the Avery pint glass.  A decent looking, fluffy white head dissipated rather quickly.  The Hercules is a good looking beer, but there is nothing particularly notable about the appearance.  One thing that was interesting is that this beer did break the streak of my Double IPAs only lacing on the left and right sides of the glass.  The Hercules had a more typical lacing pattern, with big thin rings lining the opposite side of the glass from top to bottom. 

SMELL:  The first word that came to mind when I sniffed the Hercules was intense.  And that’s just the way I like my beers.  The strong, piney hop smell steals the show, but there are also hints of grassy and citrus aromas.  Great Divide certainly knows how to create an appetite and excitement for a hop head.

TASTE:  The first sip was a little bit of a letdown.  I was expecting a bitter hop bomb, but instead tasted more sweet malt flavors.  That wasn’t a terrible thing, just unexpected.  As the beer began to warm, however, the bitter hoppy flavor became more apparent and the sweetness was relegated to the background as a balancing agent.  Hints of citrus, mostly lemon, came through at the tail end of the sip as the bitterness emerged for the aftertaste.

MOUTHFEEL:  If I remember correctly it was Barq’s whose motto was “Barq’s has Bite”.  Well, Hercules has bite, particularly if you hold it on the tongue for a couple of seconds.  The carbonations digs into the tongue, but strangely the rest of the palate seems to get more of a pleasant mouth coating sensation at the same time.  This combination seems to be responsible for making the aftertaste exceptionally strong, an unusual, but excellent feel. 

OVERALL:  This is a somewhat erratic and funky beer.  In my last review I described the Three Floyds Dreadnaught as a roller coaster ride, and the Hercules is the same in some ways, except that the roller coaster is old, rattling and extremely shaky.  For the roller coaster connoisseur, my guess is that the rattle and shake might add to the excitement, but for a rookie, it might be terrifying.  I thoroughly enjoyed this beer, but I can see how it would frighten some light beer drinkers away in a hurry. 

DRAWBACKS:  Once again, the roller coast ride was both a plus and a minus.  The Hercules is a very complex beer and with complexity comes a variety of tastes, smells and feels.  The likelihood that one beer drinker will love all of these is fairly low, so as the odds would have it, there were a few characteristics that didn’t quite do it for me.  One was the appearance.  I do believe appearance is the toughest category to screw up (I mean how often do you look at a beer and say to yourself “Well, I just don’t want to drink that”?), but the Hercules did leave something to be desired as far as its appearance went.  Additionally, the early sips were too sweet for me.  I understand the need to balance the hops out with some malt, but it took longer than I wanted for the correct balance to appear. 

SOUND:  This was a tough one, but I have to go with Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew”.  What can be grating and, well, downright scary to the untrained ear can also be a thing of beauty to a jazz aficionado.  The Hercules is going to be a classic that must be respected, but may not be fully enjoyed or appreciated by everyone, just like Miles in 1970.