The House Always Wins
Peg's Cantina & Brew Pub

 

 

Stale malts, bitter flavorless hops.

 

 

A rye IPA from one of the most exciting brewers I've come across in a long while.

Keggled, or can-growlered, or whatever... umm... is was put into this can before my eyes on Saturday, and now it's Thursday and I'm drinking it.

Pours cloudy with a white, soapy head. Smells sharp. Not so much like regular beer rye as rye bread. Not unpleasant, and I actually begin to like it quite a bit as the beer progresses, but I can see it being offputting.

Tastes... hmm. Intense. Sharp as old cheese, only without any gross cheese nodes. So.. it starts with a sharp, green taste, like a combination of high-alpha hops and some form of generic vegetable matter. And then it just keeps going. Finishes the same way as it starts, with some lingering fruit nodes at the very end. Interesting and tasty, but a bit much.

This reminds me of the first rye I ever had: Founders Red Rye. It doesn't much resemble that beer, but its sharpness and intensity are both are as foreign to me now as Founders' brew was back in 2005.

Thing is, my pallet has progressed since then. It's become calloused and angry, and very few things upset or surprise it. Now, if something's intensity registers as unruly, I worry that maybe I'm not just inexperienced, maybe it's too damn intense. I dunno.

 

 

This may not be entirely fair as I am thinking something was wrong with the beer based on the other ratings. I had it on tap at the brewery. It started out fine, with a large amount of rye and spice, but it ended with a long, overwhelming bitterness that tasted of chemicals. The bitterness was not from the hops and tasted somewhat like if you've ever accidentally sprayed some bug spray in your mouth.