King MacAlpin

I've actually been meaning to start a thread about this beer. This is one of the new recipes brought to the table by new head brewer Hollie Stephenson (formerly of Stone Brewing Co.) and is part of the new "Warrior Series" of beers that Highland is introducing:

http://www.highlandbrewing.com/warriorseries

While I wouldn't say it's the best DIPA to come out of NC (it's not as good as Freak or Rainmaker), I will agree that it's by far the best beer I've had from Highland. I highly recommend it and am looking forward to what else Hollie has up her sleeve.

 

I thought this beer was overly laquery/solventy on the finish and not very pleasant to drink. The initial aroma and hop profile is nice though.

The new APA Lost Cove on the other hand is very good and an excellent pale ale for the summer.

 

I definitely prefer MacAlpin to Rainmaker.

Freak might be a bit better, but that might be due to the more than 2% lower ABV, as MacAlpin hits just a little harder than I my ideal DIPA. I would personally group MacAlpin and Rainmaker in a separate category. For me there are 3 categories...

6.5% and under
6.5%-9.5%
9.5% and over

Obviously there's some flexibility there, and those aren't necessarily hard lines, but that's generally how I group IPAs.

Hop Drop has just had so many inconsistency issues, it's unfortunately hard to compare for me at this point.

Jade is probably my favorite overall NC IPA, but I haven't tried Hubris... yet

 

I agree with you about Macalpin. Best beer from Highland yet. I have had some fantastic small batch offerings at the brewery , but this is by far the best that they have put into distro. Great to see this from highland!

 

I think it's humorous that Highland has been making medal winning beers that sell like crazy for 20+ years, and as soon as they drop an enamel peeler of an extreme DIPA we all rush to declare it "The best Highland beer ever." Ah, the little umbrella we live under.

That being said, it is very good and should be lauded.

 

I haven't tried Mac yet, but will be on the lookout.

Hubris is coming back in 10 days. Biggest batch yet. It's equal, if not better than Freak IMO.

 

Finally got to try MacAlpin. While I prefer Freak and Hubris, this is no slouch. It's a heavy hitter at 10% ABV, but it clearly put itself on the NC DIPA map.

 

I think it's very good. A big, unapologetic, drinkable DIPA with good distribution and a very reasonable price tag ($10-12 in the Triad)? Count me in.

I'm excited for the next beer in this series.

 

I thought it was really good. Not their best beer to me (last year's Cold Mountain was delicious and that Oatmeal Porter is just straight-up amazing) but I'd definitely buy it again.

 

I liked it better than Freak, actually. I had to two back to back the other night.

 

I only had 1, but I thought it was too boozy. At 10%, I would've liked it to be a little more balanced. It was good though, one of the better offerings from Highland.

 

I've talked with a rep and while it's not concrete when, one of the coming releases in this series will be a modified recipe of the 2008 Tasgall Ale. I'm waiting on pins and needles for that goodness.

MacAlpin sold like fire in GA. Hopheads loved it. Props to Highland and glad to see them get some love again. Too many people think WW is the only thing worthwhile in Asheville, and that's ridiculous. Highland was churning out solid beers before those guys were even in diapers.

 

Was about to pick one up the other night and then saw how high the abv was, I hadn't realized that was the case. Not for me.

 

I guess I'm in the minority, I wasn't as crazy about it as I wanted to be, just like I was with Little Hump

 

I heard that this beer was the first from the new head brewer who previously brewed at stone which makes a lot of sense because this beer is fantastic.

 

See post #2.

 

Agreed on MacAlpin. Comparisons to Freak are pretty ridiculous in my opinion. MacAlpin was decent, but not something I'd buy regularly. Too malty for my tastes as far as DIPAs go. To me it tasted more like a west coast Barleywine.

 

Some love from "The Bros."

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/811/181903/

 

Makes me wonder if the ones I got had been "cooked" in a hot warehouse/truck or something. The flavor/aroma hops were pretty much non-existent in the 4 pack I had.