Hop Salad
Drake's Brewing Co.

A darker appearance than average, took on some points of red in addition to the overall orange hue of the liquid. Small white head 1/6".

Aroma was nice, usual notes of pine, grapefruit and some tropical stuff and peaches.

Taste cranked up the hop flavors but also the thick malt syrupy aspect of the beer. Just a tad lighter body please.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old notes from the Bistro's DIPA festival.

A more red appearance than most dipa's, this one is distinguishable from Drake's numerous dipa offerings, lots of clarity to this. Sticky hop aroma. Pine, grapefruit, apricot giving a little tropical feel to it. Potheads will like the aroma I suspect.

Taste, delivers on the hoppiness mouthfeel. Thick viscosity to it, lots of malt sweetness accompanying the beer. Another hoppy winner from Drake's.

On tap at Gourmet Haus Staudt a few months ago. From notes.

A: Pours a clear golden amber body. Nice off-white head, though neither retention nor lacing are exemplary.

S: Weed-like. Powerfully so, bordering on skunky (weed and skunk smell similar to me). Very dank. Mild pine and a little hint of citrus. I'll give it points on uniqueness, though I'm not necessarily going ga-ga over the aroma. I likes me my citrus!!

T: Dank, resiny flavors of weed, moss, and pine. My palate usually picks these up as more bitter than the citrus hop varieties, and this beer is no exception. The bitterness isn't quite masked, or complemented, by a sugary malt foundation.

M: Medium-full bodied. This one actually nails the mouthfeel. Normally I find Drake's beers rough around the edges, but this one struck out as having a smoothness and body that didn't cross into syrupy and heavy. I like this.

D: It was fairly good. I'd certainly pick it up again on tap, but it's not the sort of beer I'd drop everything and drive up to get when I hear it's on tap. Then again, there's pretty much no beer I would do that for (not even Pliny the Younger), so take that as you will. Certainly one of their better showings in recent memory, though. I look forward to bottles.

On-tap @ Library Alehouse; served in a 5oz taster glass.

Orange-peel liquid with decent clarity and a thin micro-bubble-laden head. Average lacing and retention.

Malt, faint caramel, dank hops, and not much else in the nose.

Bone-dry woodsy finish, preceded by gentle citrus and dank herbaceous bitterness. Malt is solid without being prominent. A bit more fruit comes out in the aftertaste, but I'm not getting the parade of flavors I was hoping for. While you can sort of pick out the contribution from Simcoe hops, the Magnum and Summit hops don't seem to add very much other than their super-high alpha acid content. Excellent, but lacks the complexity of the best examples.

Oily, slick, and a bit sharp (from the acidity?).

A good example of the style, though I slightly prefer Hopocalypse or Denogginizer given the choice. Drake's is definitely ahead of the curve in any case.

On-tap at Beachwood BBQ,

A: Pours a beautiful burnt orange with a firm medium white head, leaving thick full lace.

S: Big tropicality, pineapple and mango with lemon zest and grapefruit. Wonderful to smell.

T: Classic pine with pink grapefruit and apricot upfront, but gets really citrusy soon. Lemon and orange zest for days, grass and tropical fruit. Complex hop flavours, wonderful West Coast flavour.

M: Medium to full-bodied, soft carbonation, has a smoothness and creaminess with the hop bomb characteristics, great long aftertaste.

D: This is where it starts to get serious. The best new IPA of any sort that I have had in the last 2 years. With all the Younger craziness, it's great to have a beer that is on par at least and maybe better than Younger (Yes I said it) with no hype. Drake's is killing it lately, I couldn't be more impressed, picture perfect West Coast DIPA.

Edit - 2/23/11, better than Younger, at least this year's, 2010 would be tough to beat.

A - darker orange or amber with pretty fat white head. leaves nice sticky lacing

S - big pine smell with some of the dankest herb underneath. i didn't notice much citrus and only a little malty sweetness.

T - as expected a huge pine wallop at first, with citrus and malt following behind. finishes pretty bitter, leaving me wanting another sip

M - excellent and creamy. a pleasure to swirl around.

D - not the easiest of drinkers but that doesn't mean it wasn't really enjoyable, especially considering the ABV.

hop salad feels like an even hoppier version of dennoginizer, which didn't need a whole lot of hopping up in the first place (in a good way). it did have some serious palate destroying power, though - the union jack i had after tasted like malty water...

On-tap at Library alehouse today.

Pours an orangish amber with a fine white head which fades to a thin cap. Smell is somewhat sweet pine, citrus, grapefruit rind, and mild flowers. Taste is young pine and citrus hops upfront with a sweet, drying and bitter finish. Mouthfeel is sticky, stanky, sweet and bitter all rolled into one lovely combination. Overall, for 9% - dangerous creation here. Would seek this out again. Well done.

Reviewing from notes, on tap, poured into a shaker pint glass. Beer is a darker orange, bordering on amber, with a finger of slightly off white fluffy head. High carbonation helped keep a half finger of head on the beer constantly. The head also left a lot of nice lacing that clung tightly to the glass without sliding back down.

Nose is earthy dank hops, pine, floral, some light grapefruit peel. Nicely bitter on the nose, with some light biscuit malts in there trying tame the earthy and grassy hops.

Taking a sip, earthy, floral hops dominate, with some pine and grapefruit to contribute to a delicious hop profile. A bit of light malt sweetness on the tongue, but doesn't stop the long floral and pine hop bitterness lingering on the tongue.

Light bodied and very well carbonated with sharp small bubbles. The finish lingered a bit longer than I liked, but it went nicely with the assortment of fried calamari and nachos we were snacking on. Very easy to drink, as the alcohol is almost non existent. Always dangerous for such a high abv beer.

On tap at Fat Angel San Francisco. Jason sure knows how to pick his lineup of hoppy beers.

A - This beer freaking glows similar to 2009 Younger but not quite as vibrant. Eggshell head and lacing lasts throughout the glass.

S - Tropical Fruits, pineapple, mango, oranges grapefruit and I read on another review sugar cookie which I picked up a lot of. This is one tropical bomb. Sticky dank weed.

T - Follows nose exactly. Fruit Melody. This is like a Sculpin on steroids and better IMHO. These are those clean hops. Extremely well balanced. What I mean by that is that is this is a great example of unbalanced balance if that makes sense. Hop explosion of flavor in this one but not at all messy. Phenominal, almost speechless.

M - Pretty spot on for the style. Crisp, creamy as you get further in. No heat at all for the 9%. Clean crisp finish, hop oils linger on the palate nicely after each sip. Resinous but not overly so with a clean and smooth finish. Almost perfect.

D - Too easy. It tastes so good I just keep coming back for more.

Final thoughts - This is the best beer I've had from Drake's hands down. Hopocalypse is a fantastic DIPA but Hop Salad is better IMHO. Top 4 or 5 of the style I've had period. Very impressive and I'll go on record saying this beer is on par with PtE, Alpine's Bad Boy and the rest of their lineup, Dreadnaught, Hopslam and all the other heavy hitters overly discussed on BA.