Kool Kid Hops
Chapman Crafted Beer

 

Had Kool Kid Hops poured from pint can, no date, imported from Cali. by little bro', into nonic pint.

Pours a bit cloudy, bright gold with 2-finger, creamy, off-white head, with great retention, leaving thick rings of lace etched down the glass. Aromas of sweet orange and hop spice off pour, then aromas of a little pineapple and fresh florals, and fresh blueberry, mild pine and dank aromas as warms, but it all fades a bit as warms. On tasting, begins fresh blueberry, and some pineapple, with immediate grapefruit/lime citrus bite, over a creamy but very mild malt base, then growing pine, which carries through a little peach as warms, into a somewhat dank, resinous, but not highly-bitter finish.

Ordinarily a beer this complex "don't work." This is an astounding demonstration, if oddly cloudy, of how to use hops, which effectively turns down the West Coast bitter to up the aroma and flavor to world-class levels.

Pours a dark handsome shade of yellow with plenty of foam in the big Duvel tulip. INviting aroma of mango and orange. Sudsy and lively on the tongue. Rather sweet in the DIPA tradition. Tastes of peach, mango, and orange peel with a bitter aftertaste. This is a classic California IPA with robust flavors. Fruity but clean. All hops all the time. A little hot with alcohol but not very acidic, just nicely sharp to go with the sugar. From the 16 oz can purchased at O'Shea's Brewing in Laguna NIguel. No apparent date.

 

great combination of hops gives this beer a big hoppy flavor with a light peachy finish

Had this at the 2022 dipa festival. Nice to see others have written not one, but two reviews since the festival.

Now, this didn't have the sexiest appearance. In fact, its easily the worst attribute for the beer. Or at least it was on Feb 12, 2022. What should have been a beer with a good amount of clarity simply was turbid and looked like someone dropped an alka seltzer in it. Dark golden in color with ample floaties and a rapidly dissipating head.

The aroma was plenty good though, hitting some heavy stone fruit and citrus flesh notes. I dunno, Citra and Strata? I think there is some Chinook here too. Mosaic gives some tropical notes, Citra the citrus, normal stuff. Galaxy can be such a wild card, here it gives a light pineapple and fuzzy stone fruit. I liked it and everything about the beer drank better than its appearance. It looks like I had this at the end of the day, so maybe it was also an end of the keg type of ugly pour (poor) situation. Kind of like that Living Proof song from Springsteen. Pretty easy to drink at this abv too.

 

At $5.99 a can, I better like this, right? I don’t know. Honestly, Raul doesn’t know a damn thing anymore. The peeps that run Chapman (and the surrounding restaurants in the city), are pretty damn notorious for price gauging. And we aren’t talking cool Hitchcock “Notorious,” we’re talking scrabble notorious without even hitting a triple word bonus. I mean, it’s good, but B.I.G.G.I.E. ain’t gonna sing a song about it, ya feel me? I’ll enjoy it, but hot damn... It’s like taking my baby mama to Mastro’s, but not getting any thunder after.

Peace!

 

 

 

Crystal clear, transparent dark golden ale. Good head production, and fantastic retention.

Orange, mango, oregano, mint, orange marmalade, licorice, peach, pine. It's a very odd nose for a DIPA, although it's certainly not unpleasant.

The first thing I note on the palate is a huge, strong, old-school bitterness - bitterness that lasts, right through the finish. Hop tones up front are primarily tropical, with peach, mango, and a bit of pineapple. Lighter tones of mandarin orange and orange marmalade throughout. Plenty of malt as well, with caramel highlights more prominent than pale notes. Aftertaste carries plenty of grapefruit peel, pine, and peach, with echoes of caramel malt and grainy brown sugar.

Very lively, carrying plenty of bite. Drinks like a single IPA, which is quite remarkable.