Picked up a few new treats at the local last week. Kind of stumbled upon the Terrapin Gamma Ray, I had been meaning to look for it but never got over to Tower, I was pleasantly surprised that Beverage World had it so I bought the last two bottles! Spotted the Breck 471 IPA while picking up a 4 pack of Dogfish 90 min, figured it never hurts to try a new IPA. On to the reviews...
Terrapin Side Project #3, Gamma Ray Wheatwine:
My first wheatwine. I have become a hug fan of Barleywines in the past year, my fav being the mega hopped Rouge Old Crustacean. From what I knew of Wheatwines going in, they are rare and tend to be lighter than a barleywine, closer to a Heffe beer (yep). The Gamma Ray poured a dark orange, had a very cool "glow" to it. Very opaque, could not see through it. Head built quickly but flattened almost as quick, not much carbonation sticking around in this beer. Picked up very fruity and sweet notes in the smell, honey, a hint of hops.... Very smooth in the mouth. Honey again but you can also taste the hint of yeasteyness (not a word, I know, more of a feeling). Almost like an uberheffe on steroids. Alcohol (11%abv) hits in the end and lets you know it is there. A very nice beer, more of a fall brew than your standard wheat beer, wish I had found this earlier and been able to stock up more. A big improvement over the last Side Project that I tried, the ill-fated Roggenrauchbier. If you like Heffe and like Barleywines then give this unique style a try next time you get a chance. I'll give it 3.5 pints out of 5.
Breckenridge 471 Small Batch IPA:
Listed as a double hopped IPA on the bottle, this one sucked me in the minute I saw it on the shelf. One, I love every beer I have ever tried from Breckenridge Brewery, these guys make some outstanding beers and may rank in my top 3 favorite breweries (Stone, Bear Republic, Victory, Allagash, Rouge, Breckenridge, Dogfish, Ommegang....Ok so I like a lot of breweries and Breck is on par with the best). Two, if you have read this blog with any regularity you know I can't turn down an IPA. So how is Brecks interpretation of a big IPA? Fantastic! Has everything going for it, tons of hops that hit you in waves. I think they use 3 or 4 different types of hops and you can tell. In most big IPAs the hops hit you all at once (not a bad thing) but in this one they all come out with slightly different favors and notes. At 70 IBUs it isn't anywhere near some of the other huge 100+ IBU IPAs but for some reason it seems like that 70 should be higher. Smooth and a tad sweet in the start to help get you ready for the hop onslaught that is about to hit your taste buds. The complexity of the hops does a great job hiding the fact that this is a 9.2% abv beer. I couldn't believe it when I checked the bottle and saw it hid that much alcohol. Wow. Color was a great deep copper-orange whit a wonderful bright white head. Very sticky head that hung out on the glass and laced quite nicely. This IPA immediately jumps near the top of the list on must buy IPAs for me. I figure a fridge full of this, Dogfish 90 min and Victory Hop Wallop would make me a very happy hop head. 4.5 pints out of 5.
That is it for now. Tons of new brews are showing up here in the Atl and I am having a hard time keeping up. Some exciting new brews and good news to come in the next few days!
Happy Drinking!
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