Howler - Simcoe
Black Husky Brewing

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From:
Black Husky Brewing
 
Wisconsin, United States
Style:
Imperial IPA
ABV:
10.2%
Score:
89
Avg:
4.01 | pDev: 14.21%
Reviews:
2
Ratings:
12
Status:
Retired
Rated:
Dec 28, 2014
Added:
Jul 06, 2014
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  1
No description / notes.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by 77apm:
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Rated by 77apm from Illinois

4.25/5  rDev +6%

Aug 29, 2014
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 3.89 by Norseman from Illinois

Dec 28, 2014
 
Rated: 4.25 by ahermsen from Wisconsin

Nov 12, 2014
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Rated by mychalg9 from Illinois

4/5  rDev -0.2%
Bottle #1335

My favorite cat piss smell. In a good way of course.
Sep 26, 2014
 
Rated: 5 by WesMKE from Wisconsin

Aug 16, 2014
 
Rated: 3.25 by Duff27 from Illinois

Jul 20, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by Westuh from Wisconsin

Jul 20, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by egrace84 from Illinois

Jul 20, 2014
Photo of joe1510
Reviewed by joe1510 from Illinois

3.77/5  rDev -6%
look: 4 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.75
22oz Bomber
$8.99
Discount Liquors - Milwaukee

Bottle #0728

The shimmering ruby red body glugs from the bottle and fills the glass with a hazy, orange body. The highlights glow ruby and the body is tough to peer through. A dense white head forms easily on the pour, reaching a fat finger in height before taking it's sweet time settling at a thick cap with and even thicker ring. The ring leaves chunky drink lines down the glass. Very nice.

The nose stuffed to the gills with pine. A touch of orange fights its way through the pine at times and it's accentuated by the candied sweetness and drizzled caramel of the malt profile. A touch of apricot pops in to add to that candied quality. Peppery, but clean, booze adds depth. Get's my salivary glands going.

Fruit is more pronounced in flavor. Up front is nothing but apricot and orange. The candied sweetness I picked up in the nose has settled into a cozy little drizzle of caramel. The citrus doesn't last long. Aggressive pine kicks in mid palate and runs roughshod through the finish. Peppery booze makes the hop profile pop. Howler is a hop bomb of a beer, good complexity and a unique malt profile.

The body is silky smooth from start to finish. The carbonation is soft and the body has a weight on the heavier side of average. Booze is noticeable throughout but clean. If the booziness was cut just a bit it would help the overall drinkability. The finish dries up rather quickly with the booze accentuating the bitterness that grows just above moderate.

There are a couple things I feel could use a tweak on this beer, but not but much, and as it stands right now this beer is delicious. The simcoe is in your face piney with notes of apricot and orange. I feel that single hopped pale ales are pretty one dimensional, and this is an example of that, but they also have the ability to be delicious, like this example here. A good showcase for Simcoe all around.
Jul 17, 2014
 
Rated: 5 by robear from Wisconsin

Jul 11, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by sahd-1 from Illinois

Jul 07, 2014
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Reviewed by lunarbrew from Wisconsin

2.94/5  rDev -26.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3
This is the second single-hopped Howler variation by Black Husky. The bottle is individually numbered without an 'E' preceding the bottle count. $9.99 for a bomber--let's hope it's good.

The beer has a red/amber hue and pours quite clear. The color is a turnoff, although I noticed this is pretty characteristic of Wisconsin IPAs for whatever reason; it's far darker than it should be for the style, and from my experience (which is no way academic), indicates a decent amount of residual sugar in the beer. I'm expecting sweetness, which is never welcome in my Simcoe- IIPAs.

The smell is caramel heavy and almost strong-aleish. Burnt sugar, some diacetyl, and tropical juicy hops come from the glass: mango, pineapple, and papaya. Not really digging this profile.

The taste is quite honestly a mess. This is far too sweet and the hops are hiding behind the malt presence. This can benefit from a (much) smaller grain bill, shorter boil, and a different yeast strain. As is, this tastes borderline barley wine or Belgian double, which is pretty disappointing. There is caramel, candi sugar, Belgian-y yeast character, maltose, and a host of other flavors which I never want to see in my ipas. There is a hop character in the flavor: primarily pineapple and papaya. This beer is close to undrinkable, in my opinion.

Mouthfeel isn't too bad, besides the stickiness left by the sugar.

This brewery is getting a little traction in the midwest, but they have yet to impress me. The pale ale is pretty good, but with their bigger beers (like this one), they really need to work on brewing clean and logical beer. Very little about this beer hits stylistic guidelines so to me, it comes off amateurish and disappointing. Get ahold of some inspirational double ipas (west coast, east coast, whatever!) and try to match these beers! You can taste your beer before you release it; if it turns out like this, don't release it at $9.99 a pop and expect support. This is very frustrating for a consumer trying to give new locals a shot.
Jul 06, 2014
Howler - Simcoe from Black Husky Brewing
Beer rating: 89 out of 100 with 12 ratings