Quite possibly one of, if not the, best night of drinking of my entire life. The timing was perfect. We had just came back from a trip to San Diego with some Pizza Port and Alpine brews. My friend was in Chicago just days before the tasting so he was able to snab some Three Floyds, Pipeworks, Surly, and Half Acre beers. And on a whim I quickly visited Cleveland to get growlers Fat Heads IBUsive and Columbus Bohdi. We had quite the turnout for this one, especially since everyone saw the line up leading into it. It was an incredible 6 hours of drinking, one I never will forget (although I did kind of slowly black out towards the end..so that part may always be forgotten). Take a look below at all the wonderful beers in the lineup:
Now unlike my other tastings, there were only a very small handful of beers that were unsatisfying. Let me discuss the big stand outs thought.
Alpine Pure Hoppiness was a shock because we had it on tap in San Diego and preferred
Nelson and
Duet much more..but something happened to this bottle and it was out of this world good! The aroma hit you from feet away and the whole room were pure enjoyment as they sipped on it making it the clear winner.
Another big standout was shockingly enough
Surly Abrasive. Now it is rated 100 on Beer Advocate, but it was a few months old so I expected it to lose a lot of its luster. It didn't...it was incredible. It's brothers...
Furious and
Overrated! were good..but didn't come close to
Abrasive.
Another shocker, well not for me since I have had it, was
Pipeworks Derketo. It is a Belgian IPA which most would think isn't too great. They are wrong..it drinks like a great regular IPA, very hoppy and has a lightness to it even though it is around 10%. The other Pipeworks however were all pretty underwhelming which was sad since used to be so much better. I personally think they are pumping out too many different styles and not focusing on making just a few quality beers like they were at the beginning.
Three Floyds unfortunately while pumped up by me just couldn't make a big splash due to the two beers offered,
Artic Panzer Wolf and
Dreadnaught since they both tasted VERY alcoholic.
Half Acre's
Vallejo was real tasty and liked by most however. Good representation of Chicago beers.
Along with the Alpine beers,
Pizza Port made a good splash for San Diego beers. The
S.I.P.A. session was a big hit, especially since sessions were just starting to pop up all over. And
Swami's IPA was also really tasty.
Our typical Ohio beers did great also.
Fat Heads IBUSive growler was top 5 and a huge hit.
Headhunter IPA and
Sunshine Daydream Session were also popular.
Brew Kettle White Rajah did well. And
Columbus Bohdi growler was a big hit, while the
Columbus IPA was just average.
As for the rest, they were mostly our typical local beers.
Ghandi Bot was probably top 5 as usual...it is so good and rarely found around here.
Ithaca Flower Power, Ballast Point Sculpin, Lagunitas Sucks, Stone Enjoy By, Great Lakes Rye of the Tiger, Bear Republic Apex and others were all staples around here and while very enjoyable just couldn't compete!
Such a great night of drinking that I could write about for hours since IPAs are my passion and I thought our lineup couldn't of gotten much better with the resources I am given. The only way to even possibly make it better was maybe to throw in a can of Heady and some Hill Farmstead growlers...but hey wasn't need and it was a GREAT night!
