Over labor day at a family reunion, my cousin's husband and I traded some beers, both homebrew and local commerical beers. Mike lives in Denver and among the beers he brought me was Russian River's Blind Pig. When I was in Denver in March, I tried both Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder from Russian River and both were excellent, so I was excited to see this among the beers he brought.I was thinking lately about the hype surrounding beer. I think the grass is only greener mentality applies to beer a lot. I think its only natural to believe that the rare beer for me is better than the beer that I can get on tap all the time. However, I think that sometimes beers that I take for granted or sometimes don't even like are beers heavily coveted by beer fans in other parts of the country.
That being said, Blind Pig is not a beer that falls into that category. Whatever hype surrounding this beer, or brewery for that matter, is well deserved.
Blind Pig pours a cloudy gold with a foamy white head. Wonderful grapefruity aromas along with some pineness. Citrusy flavors right away, mostly grapefruit with some puckering bite. Very litter bitterneness with some great sweetness, seemingly from the hops more than the malt. Perfect mouthfeel. It's creamy and soft up front wiht some great bite in the finish that gives it just enough crispness to leave you wanting another sip. Wonderfully complex, this beer is piney and grapefruity and just extremely well balanced. An excellent IPA.
Slowly, I'm working through the reviews I want to get to...coming up is either one of my own beers, or another of the great beers Mike either made or brought me.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer
3 comments:
I think that "grass in greener" mentality is more of a distribution issue than anything. That said, I'm glad a lot of beers focus more on quality than distribution. I was in Omaha recently, and had some great Nebraska craft brews. I love discovering new beers when I go new places, instead of drinking things I have available in Chicago.
I am not sure I agree. I've found that in most cases, the hyped brews I've been put onto have lived up. I would say that I am generally disappointed by brews that have great marketing approach. They usually fall short of the coolness of their labels.
Thanks for the comments guys. I agree with both of you. I think that distribution is the main issue. I also agree with what you said Travis. The more I think about it, it's not so much that I the hyped beers don't live up, it's more that once they are readily available, then I usually go looking for something else. Fat Tire was huge when it arrived here, but once the "newness" wore off, I don't find myself buying it as often. I think its still a good beer, but I'm always looking for something new and exciting. That is more of what I intended but didn't clarify. I think that "hyped up" beers usually do live up, but it's the rare beer that we naturally pine for, and if they were readily available, I think I would be wanting something else, when that great beer is still available. At least that's how I think I tend to be.
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