Hop Ranch or DirtWolf

Last year I strongly preferred HR over DW by a fair margin. All the guys that work for me agreed (and they don't have to, lol).

This week I was at Victory and picked up a case of HR and a case of DW along with a growler of HR and DW. We are not getting into the cases until later today, however 4 of us split up the two growlers and all preferred DW. I preferred it by a large margin.

I am beginning to think this changing palette thing people keep talking about may have some merit . . . .

 

I snagged some in DC at Rodman's last weekend. Dang this is good! Just had a couple of Wings and switched over to Hop Ranch, got an EXPLOSION of citrus and pineapple goodness. Don't know where some of the other pix came from, but this bottle is dated 6 JUN and is exactly what HR was last year, i.e. fantastic!

 

That definitely happens! I notice more and more at tastings I go to that my palate has changed, dare I say refined?, and that things I rated a year or two ago as a 5 are a 3.5 or 4 now...That said, I still really like HR! It has a bit of residual sweetness, that reminds me of Hawaii for some reason, that is really pleasant to my palate. DW is a very good beer and I will drink it as long as I can find it fresh! That is one nice thing about "seasonal" beers...they come in, you know they are fresh, and then you wait 9-10 months for them again. Year round beers sit on shelves and I wish beer stores would do SOMETHING to fix this issue. I was out last weekend at a very popular store and could not find ONE fresh IPA! Nothing in the entire store was less than 2-3 months old! Think this may add to the debate over HR vs DW...not sure that I would pick HR over DW if they both were fresh as hell! Cheers!

 

Your first sentence answered your second as far as I can tell. I picked up a couple of cases of Hi-Res tonight at a distributor and noted a couple of things. Firestone Walker Double Jack - multiple cases. Some of those had "updated" graphics on the case. Obviously noted that and yup, the old all black print on the case was 6 months old. The "new" graphics were bottled 12/2014. Then I noted that Ithaca has changed their packaging on Flower Power. The multi-color groovy boxes we are used to were replaced by much bland box, which of course held 2 week old Flower Power.

 

Hop ranch for me!