Rebel IPA vs Lagunitas?

Lagunitas owns Sam Adams no comparison. Lagunitas all day.

 

Had high hopes but Rebel IPA is just undrinkable. Lagunitas any day - all day

 

Rebel IPA is shit. Lagunitas has nothing to worry about. In fact, in some spots in NY, you can get a sixer of Lag IPA cheaper than that swill Rebel. I don't know how it's a take on a West Coast. I had to chew it and force it down. I have had 11 bottles (made the unfortunate mistake of getting a 12 pack for a dinner party and no one drank it) sitting in my garage for almost 2 months.

 

Yeah Rebel was on sale at my spot. I guess they aren't selling much of it.

 

Every time I go to the supermarket here in SF, I see a huge portion of the shelf full of Lagunitas- Sucks, Cappuccino Stout, Imperial Stout, IPA, Dogtown, Sumpin', I cant think of any others. And I also see about 15 cases of Rebel IPA that just drifts around the store in a tower. They keep moving the little tower everywhere but it stays at around 15 cases. Why would we get a west-coast IPA from somebody on the east coast, when I already cant get out of the door without accidentally stepping into LAG IPA or Racer 5 or any of the other insanely delicious IPA's that completely surround me. The tower will keep moving.

 

Had the Rebel on tap at a casual dining restaurant where the options were slim. It beat my expectations by quite a bit, although I admit they were pretty low to start with. I would take the Rebel over the Lagunitas. I thought it was a pretty good beer and really didn't taste anything that would lead me to call it swill or worse.

 

I brew a lot of IPA's and I'm also a big Sam Adams fan along with Lagunitas both for different reasons, I have also been to both breweries. I think the Rebel is SA's best IPA to date need I say (by a mile), but comparing it to Lagunitas isn't really fare, two completely different grades and markets, Lagunitas is more along the lines of Stone or Ballast Point... That being said BOTH are good IPA's when factored with their price range, I challenge anyone to compete with SA when it comes to price AND product, thank you Jim Koch! And I'm not totally sure how well the east coast get's their deliveries especially during the summer, but it is a HUGE factor especially with the lighter beers!!! I will be doing beer judging in Virginia and N. Carolina next month so it will be interesting to see how that fairs with winter time. ~D~

 

Finally came across SA rebel ipa in my sparrow fart town at my local beer/liquor store. Was actually tempted to purchase, but in the long run decided to pony up a couple extra bucks for a little sumpin sumpin instead ( also grabbed a sixer of stone ipa and a4-pack of SN bigfoot). I should also add that my wife has me on a beer budget, so I didn't want to waste my dollars. Anyway, I figured I'll give rebel a shot some other day. Most likely when it's the only ipa on tap at some future eatery (similar to the only time I order a longhammer ipa).

 

That's because anyone calling it swill is obviously biased against Sam Adams and being incredibly over-dramatic

Like others have said, I too find Rebel a lot closer to Ranger than Lagunitas IPA. That said, when I'm craving Ranger, 99 times out of 100 I'm going to grab Ranger.

Also worth noting, Ranger has always been an IPA I will bring to gatherings where I know most will be drinking BMC and Blue Moon. It goes over well with a lot of people, and I bet Rebel would go over similarly well.

 

rrock44, Rebel IPA is better than Longhammer, not huge but better, I'm afraid now that AmBev owns 33% of Redhook it's not looking good... I agree Ranger is a close match to Rebel but if you guys haven't tried NB French Aramis
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQFjAA&url=http://www.newbelgium.com/beer/french-aramis&ei=uIEaU4Btg-SgBPuDgcgG&usg=AFQjCNHqqJCs17GD8SKwaED8QuGDEKfPKA&sig2=k5rDIQbaM7fBdhWuQbLM3w&bvm=bv.62578216,d.cGU
WOW what a great IPA, It's in my top 5. I plan on developing a recipe soon.

 

Unfortunately, French Aramis was a June one-off (brewed once) and we might never see it again.

 

Unfortunately, French Aramis was only a one-off (brewed once) released back in June. Decent chance that we might not see it ever again. When did you try it? It would be much less aromatic if it was recent. Freshness is extremely important with dry-hopped beers Yet looking at the most recent review for French, many still don't take it into consideration

 

They changed the name of Alchemy Hour. It's now called Chillwave. They released it a couple weeks ago. So, you should be able to find it. Cheers!

 

Drinking a Rebel right now and I think it's actually better than Ranger! Fresher taste and nice finish!

 

Is this a real question? Enjoy by June 2014 if that means anything about when it was brewed (Rebel IPA). Seems like they took a boston lager and jacked up the terrible hop accents to create this brew just to please the hop heads. It's not terrible, but it is no where near any of Lagunita's offerings. Perhaps I had a very bad sample of the intended product, but I would drink any macro brew over this. Even Budwisers (Anheuser-Busch) Vanilla Bourbon Cask is better than this, which is what this beer reminds me of.

 

What do the "terrible hop accents" that you find in Boston Lager taste like? Besides that, I found no roasted malt (i.e. red/amber) flavors in Rebel. As for the vanilla bourbon cask comparison, well, I guess I just don't understand your taste buds at all

 

I've only had one bottle of this and while overall I was disappointed, I did find that it was pretty easy drinking and had a nice mild sweetness and pleasant aftertaste. They should have bumped up the IBUs by at least 10.

 

Hate to differ with you guys but my latest shipment of Aramis says Jan 05/14 got a case of it. Must bee a lucky sole. Oh and going to Munich Oktoberfest this fall again, I'm a real lucky sole...

 

why is it not "fare" to compare the two? Rebel IPA is popping up all over the place here in CA and they are marketing Rebel as a "West Coast Style IPA."

 

Because SA and Lagunitas are in different arenas of quality. SA is a great beer (for the price) Stone and Lagunitas are high price and quality.