Hop Ranch
Victory Brewing Company - Downingtown

 

 

2014 vintage; drank 4/14/14 @ World of Beer.

Yellow murkiness.

Bright white head; thick lace.

Fresh marijuana & pineapple nose.

Medium thin mouthfeel.

Pineapple, marijuana & pine needles. Just a hair too bitter, but good.

 

 

 

Excellent IPA,pale golden with thin head, wonderful citrus head. Light and airy despite being a double. This is an every day beer, and super high quality to boot.

 

 

Bought a single, slightly past prime, but great DIPA all the same. Uniquely berry, pungent, oily, and peppery.
a) Pours bright amber-straw body with a splashing lacing, lasting head.
s) Big tropical, berry, and herbal hops. layered on raw honey and honey comb malt base.
t) Follows tropicals juicy, ripe fruit, with mango, passionfruit, pineapple, and gooseberry notes. Pie. glazed with honey. Levers into the peppery, earthy, scatting finale with as much cannabis as you can imagine.
f) Medium-bodied, oily, medicinal yet dry, bitter and cleansing. Astringent as in sassafras and spruce and orange peel.
o) A great DIPA deserves to be in any DIPA blind taste off.

 

 

Hazy gold with a dense white on finger head. Very good amount of fine bubble lace.
Smell is floral dank with some sweetness from the malt.
Taste is dank hop oil with plenty of bready malt.
Mouthfeel is medium with just enough carbonation. The finish is medium dry and bitter.
Overall a very smooth beer for this style. This particular beer is about three months past the best by date.

 

 

My local ale shop gets seasonals and then, if they have any left when the ale goes out of season, they discount it big time. I like trying the bargain brews so I got a 4-pack of Hop Ranch for $4.99. This is a winter seasonal, so I wasn't expecting anything because many winter ales are dark, heavy and warming - not exactly what you want to drink on the porch in the Georgia summer when the temperature's in the 90s. Surprise! Hop Ranch is more of a summer ale, but there's still quite a there there. Light in color, very hoppy but with a nice malt balance, and a 9% ABV that's well-hidden by the lightness of body. Floral notes? Check. Fruity notes? Check. Malt - bitterness interplay? Check. My favorites are Great Divide Hercules and Dogfish Head 90-Minute. Hop Ranch is in the same mode, but with a lighter, more summery character. I just ran back to my ale shop and bought two cases!

Poured into a tulip, the appearance was a pure murky burnt dark copper color with a lasting finger's worth of white foamy head that glided off gently. Some messy lace.
The aroma had an earthy hop punch in the beginning punching some piney hop burn, some berries, maybe raspberry/sort of blueberry something or other as it's somewhat weak coming across.
The flavor moderately leaned into the sweetness of the prior mentioned aromas but lent a hand to a "dirty" sort of aftertaste.
The mouthfeel was about medium bodied with a fair sipping quality about it. Carbonation felt fine. ABV felt on par.
Overall, I say pretty nice DIPA that even lives up to it's name with that "dirty" like aftertaste. Was that intentional, Victory?