Kommenter Beer Barrel: Calling All Hops

I remember very clearly, seven years or so ago, a time when the cutting edge of IPA brewing methods seemed to involve cramming as many hop cones as you could into a boiler of wort. Later, breweries would become bored with merely filling the boilers to overflowing with hops, and started cramming the hop cones into the fermenters, also, and dry-hopping was born. But even before the advent of widespread dry-hopping, the IPA scene was a wild-ass place, full of lunatics putting out beers with names like Ruination and Palate Wrecker that rated in the triple digits in a measure called International Bitterness Units, which didn’t really tell you how bitter a beer was actually going to taste but was a pretty good measure of how many hops had been crammed into it. A brewery in Denmark made an IPA that “theoretically” had 1000 IBUs, which is dumb because no one can taste more than about 110 unless, maybe, they’re buttchugging. This towering achievement of stupidity in brewing was not surpassed until last year, when a brewery in Britain released a beer at 140 proof just to show it could be done.

Of late, though, brewers of IPA have moved away from sheer unfathomable bitterness and into beers designed to highlight the unique and increasingly diverse flavors of specific hops. Sierra Nevada was an early innovator here with Torpedo IPA, a showcase for the then-new Citra hop. But it’s Mosaic, a daughter of Citra, with its almost unbelievably lush tropical fruit flavor, that’s really kicked this evolution into overdrive. Nationally, Deschutes Brewing put out a Mosaic-Citra IPA a couple of years back to thunderous applause. Fresh Squeezed, an IPA you’d swear is some kind of ridiculous fruit beer even though there’s not even one fresh grapefruit or mango put into it, was a revelation to me personally and, it turns out, a precursor to a whole new breed of IPA. To give a brief rundown of the story since:

The best-rated IPA in my entire home state of Texas is Lone Pint Yellow Rose, a single-hop Mosaic IPA best described as “Fresh Squeezed, but without any of the things that don’t make it perfect.” Breweries across the country are rolling out IPAs with Mosaic, because I swear to God, this hop is like cheating at IPA. But it’s not just one hop. Brewers are making beer with all-New Zealand hops, plants with names like Rakau that are somehow delivering passionfruit and black pepper in the same package. Oskar Blues made an IPA with nothing but Australian hops and just called it “IPA.” Stone Brewing has bought fully into the revolution, reformulating two of its classics, Pale Ale and (much more shockingly) the paradigmatic IBU-arms-race IPA, Ruination. The former’s now focused around potential next-big-thing Mandarina Bavaria. The latter now incorporates Citra and the still-underused Azacca. Closer to my home, Real Ale Brewing of Blanco, TX has done the same, turning its venerable Full Moon Rye Pale Ale into a full-fledged IPA featuring Citra hops.

I’m not here to talk about any of those beers, even though you should drink them all. Boulevard’s The Calling IPA is a little bit old school, a little bit new school. The hop bill is a hell of a roll call, with American classics Cascade, Amarillo and Simcoe meeting trendy newcomers like, yes, Mosaic, but also Equinox and Bravo, not to mention recent Australian inventions Topaz and Galaxy. Against this IPA’s sweeter-than-typical malt backdrop, they show off a range of flavors from pine to peach without coming off as muddled or scattered. The beer pours golden and hazily translucent, and the head leaves such a nice lacing that you can tell JR Smith’s never been anywhere near it. At 8.5% ABV, The Calling straddles the line between regular IPA and double IPA, and is best suited for activities like putting beer into your face.

tl;dr: IPA’s changin’, y’all. If you hate beers that give you bitter beer face, you’ll probably be able to tolerate this one. If you swear by the old school hop bombs, this is a great introduction to a whole new dimension of hoppiness. If you just like things that taste good, buy this, buy it now.

Grade: Of course you can have IPA for breakfast.

lady snow says: This is definitely a maltier IPA. It reminds me a little of scotch for some reason. I’m not sure why. Like if you took the booziness, and the smoke, out of scotch, and just had that underlying flavor.

make it snow says: I always get the most unconventional beer takes from you. But I’ll be a son of a bitch if you’re not right. It’s like this combination of hops somehow mimics the flavor notes you get from good whisky.

make it snow is an alot of beer who has drunk at least 2000 unique beers in his life. He drank two bottles of The Calling last night and another this morning. At press time he is yelling at Northwestern’s football team. Buy him a beer on the PayPals.

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makeitsnowondem
make it snow is an alot of beer. He is also a Broncos fan living in Denver.
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Spanky Datass

@make it snow

Brewmeister’s website/products are quite brotastic in a IFIT’SNOTSCOTTISHIT’SCRAAAAP! sort of way.

http://brewmeister.co.uk/

Senor Weaselo

Is it bad that I’m curious about this 140-proof British beer? Namely, how is it physically possible, where can I get it, and at what velocity will I hit the floor after a pint?

Darkest Timeline Zack Morris

I love the flavor of a good, hoppy IPA, but holy hell does it play havoc with my insides. One especially hoppy beer and I’ll have indigestion for a whole day. Somehow, I forget every goddamned time.

Moose -The End Is Well Nigh

Great review.

I think we all know what Lady Snow said…..

No, anyway; I liked this too.

Hopefully this hat is acceptable to Balls, since he has the great trepidation for hats and those wearing them.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/e2b67e64ed8dc87827b3a719e4729d47/tumblr_nt42s7HybP1t07z8ao1_1280.jpg

ballsofsteelandfury

I do enjoy that hat. And the shirt.

Darkest Timeline Zack Morris

This has been the entry post for both my Dad and my Father-In-Law. They both now realize that I made a website, thanks to this post. Great job.

...

Ah ha. You root for Northwestern.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Not sure if anyone out there is in the market for cheap knockoff NFL jerseys, but if so, my Amari Cooper one just arrived via these guys and I’m very satisfied. Cost less than $25.

ballsofsteelandfury

Well done. I’m proud of you for buying merchandise of dubious origins!

sunrisesunrise

My buddy just bought a bunch of knockoff Mitchell and Ness for $20 each. Waiting to see the quality before jumping on that deal.

Darkest Timeline Zack Morris

Will you still wear it when they’re playing in St. Louis next year?

/jk nobody will be playing in St. Louis next year

ballsofsteelandfury

I just had a Me So Honey Golden Ale from Belching Beaver Brewing Co.

No, I did not make that up.

sunrisesunrise

Belching Beaver has some great names for their beers. Only one I’ve had is the PB Stout. I wasn’t impressed.

ballsofsteelandfury

I just bought that and it’s sitting in my fridge. Gimmicky beers like that are a bit of a gamble. I’ll report back and let you know if I concur with your conclusion.

ballsofsteelandfury

FWIW, the Golden Ale was pretty good. Went down easily. Like somebody’s mom.

laserguru

Yeah fuck it.
/opens a Sculpin.

...

I bought a sixer of the Habenero variety. I keep thinking I could cook something with this beer and it would come out delicious.

sunrisesunrise

Is it worth drinking? I love sculpin. But I’ve had a hard time accepting the habanero version. I had Aztec Brewery’s Chipotle IPA and it turned me off on the spicy beer fad.

laserguru

Great stuff. I’ve been in the IPA action for the last several years and admittedly it does take an acquired taste. I took several weeks of beer class a couple of years back and it was eye opening. Until then I had never tried a gose or a saisson, or a farmhouse ale and I consider myself a fan of them all now. Though I am a big IPA fan now. My boys down the street make Blue House IPA that is explosive with the Simcoe hops, their Citra beer is now sold at Dodger Stadium and their Mossaic is fairly new to the lineup but is damn delicious.
It’s worth getting out there and trying new beverages. My godson who is part owner of ESBC is a certified cicerone and I never would have discovered this wonderful beer diversity without him.

blordinaryfagicmox

Kellen Winslow has a great solution to all your dry-hopping problems.

Doktor Zymm

Sounds tasty. If it already tastes like the dark fruit notes in Scotch, how awesome would it be if they made a smoked version?

ThePirateSloth

I just can’t enjoy IPA’s. They are way too damned hoppy for my tastes. Everyone here in the PNW always gives me such disapproving looks when I tell them I do not have a taste for IPAs and then order a Guinness.

Or maybe the disapproving looks are from my not wearing any pants because the game is on and I just wandered into their house to watch the game.

ballsofsteelandfury

You and me both. On both counts.

...

To each their own, but I would say there is a pretty range in terms of the quality and bitterness of IPAs and it would be easy to hate the style if you had nothing but what seems like hop slurry. I’ve had some truly bad ones before and some that are actually well-balanced.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Calling all hops? Goddamnit, enough with the “athletic” beers already. Can’t we have something a little gritty once in a while, like a Welkerweizen?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Also, I’m totally kidding about the IPA focus; I was just trying to make a racist joke.

ballsofsteelandfury

Please do. Love me some hefeweizens!

ballsofsteelandfury

Also, does this mean no porters and stouts?

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Hefeweizen: The unheralded great beer style.

Old School Zero

Whatever sugary alcohol called Leffe Ruby I had tonight wasn’t nearly as exciting as this post.

Old School Zero

I should have ordered the blonde. For some reason I was assuming sour-ish. Nope. Sugar.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

“I should have ordered the blonde.”

– Chris Berman

ballsofsteelandfury

Have you passed by Vieux Orleans yet?