Over-the-Edge
Whitstran Brewing Company

Over-the-Edge is brewed to the exact same recipe as Whitstran’s 11th Hour Pale Ale, but is dry-hopped by means of an experimental method using proprietary techniques that I promised the brewer I wouldn’t put in print. Let’s just say that brewers in the greater Yakima Valley sometimes find themselves recipients of innovative new products courtesy of the R&D folks at the Hop Union cartel. In this case, the process allows for dry-hopping at kegging, not during fermentation.

The result is a hop aroma so fresh, it almost transcends what we think hop aroma is or should be. The apple juice fragrance from 11th Hour is forward leaning. But the smell of hops is so far beyond the boundaries of what ordinarily applies to the evaluation of hop aroma that it isn’t immediately apparent that you’re actually smelling hops in Over-the-Edge. It’s like the standard for appreciating hop aroma is being rewritten – and rewritten in a language we must first learn to read.

The best I can describe it is that it smells like the hops are still actively growing. Can we describe smell as “like tinsel on a tree?” It’s like a smell that requires a running start to latch hold of. A smell that requires both lungs. And it’s not unlike cannabis.

And what variety of hops is used in this odd invention? I can’t tell you that either. All I can tell you is that the experimental nature of this ale earns it a high-midrange evaluation if for no other reason than that there’s nothing else to compare it to. I enjoyed both the beer and its novelty.

As to the impact of these experimental methods on the rest of the beer, I drank my pint of OTE somewhat concurrently with another pint of 11th Hour and found that the potent herbal aroma infiltrated the taste and diminished the experience of bitterness while tempering the nut-like qualities. It also stole the suds. The effect of transforming 11th Hour into OTE was like one of turning wood into leaf. Over-the-Edge opens a whole new door on beer design. You really should try it.

I was served a four ounce sample at the brewery while traveling from Richland to Yakima, Washington with imacoug and rdunham.

A: It had a light golden copper hue with a modest head and spotty lacing.

S: It was bursting with earthy spicy and pine aromas. The smell of hops demand notice and are impossible to ignore. The dry-hopping produced the desired affect...this is a hop-heads delight.

T: Pow...this brew pops with hops. There is a spicy, earthy hop profile from start to finish.

M: Light body with a tangy zesty hop bite but a pretty clean finish and limited but noticeable lingering sour aftertaste.

D: This beer is not for me...it is too hoppy for my taste. However, for a dry-hopped IPA it accomplished its mission. No one will doubt that this is an IPA.