Hop Rod Rye
Bear Republic Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

Packaged 6/7/22.

Bottle poured into a Bear Republic Brewing Co pint glass

A: Pours copper brown amber with a frothy tan head that settles to a firm layer and laces nicely.

S: Toasty bready malt, rye spice, earthy, herbal, pine, floral notes, light citrus, faint hints of dark fruit, and a little toffee sweetness.

T: Peppery rye right up front, toasty bready malt, spicy pine, floral notes, underlying citrus, grapefruit lemon, and orange, earthy, green herbal notes, hints of dark fruit, and toffee sweetness.

M: Just a touch on the fuller side of medium body, moderate carbonation. Deceptively smooth for an 8%er.

O: Could have sworn I reviewed this one at some point, but I'm glad I was able to snap some up. Definitely a piece of NorCal brewing history. Excellent Rye IPA!

16oz can poured into a New Belgium globe.

A: Dark ruby red color with lighter orange hues. Super healthy head formation and retention. A solid two and a half fingers of cream-coloered head stick around for the duration and leave behind gobs of chunky lacing in a loose ring formation.

S: Juiced ruby red grapefruit, pine and resin, green and spicy hop oils. Underlying malt toastiness, sharper earthy rye spice, and a distinct crystal malt sweetness that brings a touch or berry/candy shell. Clean fermentation profile, probably chico yeast.

T: Opens with a fat crystal malt sweetness. Caramel, toffee, and candy shell. This very quickly gives way to a drying blanket of toastiness, flashes of burnt crust, and a lot of spicy rye. Hop profile hits hard and fast with a lot of vibrant and bitter ruby red grapefruit juice. Butter line and resin too, along with an oily and green spiciness. Bitterness is quite firm. The finish dries quite a bit with long lingering rye spice, oily hop bitterness, and traces of soot.

M: Full bodied with some chewiness and a very round and creamy malt texture. Plenty of raking hop astringency too. Ample carbonation scrubs firmly.

O: What a throwback. I do think this is the first rye IPA I ever had, circa 2008, but I can't remember ever revisiting it before today. I do miss rye beer in general, and feel like it got unfairly buried under the sea of west coast and hazy IPAs. This particular beer is considered a venerable classic within the rye sub-styles, and deservedly so. I love what they've done with the hop profile: the rye is unabashedly bold, and there's some interesting specialty malt character to round things out and create just enough balance to ground the bitterness and spiciness. Drinking it bakes me feel like I pulled something special out of the beer archives, but in this case I didn't have to blow any dust off of it because it was nice and fresh at my local packie.

 

Pours a hazy brown with a small head and light lacing.

Smells of malt and caramel.

Tastes of toasted semi sweet spicy malt with a slightly bitter, alcohol warm finish.

Medium body and carbonation. Lush smooth mouthfeel.

This is an excellent old-school West Coast IPA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From notes 12/15/12: Pours a clear hazy deep amber/light brown which clears some as it warms. As the beer settles a small amount of sediment becomes evident. The pour produces a heavy finger of frothy, variously bubbled, somewhat lasting, light tan head that leaves a thin pasty wash of lace. Aroma is hop forward earthy, floral, grapefruit, pine with a fruity hint, rye bread and rye spice. Taste is nicely balanced: earthy, grapefruit, orange zest, pine: caramel malt heavy, rye spice and a hint of chocolate. Sweet, lightly bitter finish with a caramel bitter aftertaste. The 8% ABV is well hidden with pleasant warming appearances in the finish and aftertaste. Mouthfeel is medium to heavy with moderate carbonation, very smooth, creamy and rich. Very, very nice.