My IPA Shootout (9 Beer Blind Taster)

I realized I had some three or four top notch IPA’s on hand at home and got the idea for another of my blind taste tastes. I went and bought some more IPA’s that I could find in my northern MN area (limited) and ended up with nine total. I noticed the Two-Hearted dates were not real good so I went to three separate stores and all three had six packs with the same dates so I just went with it.

Here is the field and the bottle codes/dates. I have not deciphered some of them so if you know please add to the thread.

-Summit Saga (2/11/13-Best by)
-Bells Two Hearted (7/13/12-Bottled on)
-O’Dell IPA (1/8/13-Best by)
-New Belgium Ranger (15, July 12-Bottled on)
-Lift Bridge Hop Dish (could not find a date)
-Big Sky IPA (1999122-top line)(080712-bottom line…guessing this was bottled on)
-Magic Hat Columbus Dry Hop HIPA (006261-top line)(05437879-bottom line)
-Sierra Nevada Torpedo (215211601)
-Pyramid Outburst (1/11/13-Best by)-Yes DIPA but close to IPA..or so I thought

Process:

Wife pours the beers into nine different numbered glasses and keeps a key indicating what is in which glass. I taste and analyze all the beers and rate them 1-to-9. I also try and guess what beer is what.

Results:

I’ve had all these beers in the past but had a hard time distinguishing what was what for the most part. I hit on Pyramid, Magic Hat, O’Dell and Two Hearted.

The Rankings:

1. Lift Bridge Hop Dish-Huge hop aroma and flavor..noted pine and citrus..

2.O’ Dell IPA-I’ve done a few other IPA tasters over the years and O’Dell has always come in first. I rarely find it in my neck of the woods so I rarely experience it but it always shows up strong in these for me. Aroma loaded with hops…nice pine notes..

*These were the clear top 2

3. Bells Two Hearted-It did no have that bright citrus I would have expected from a fresher bottle but even with age it held up well in this taster.

*This was the clear #3

4.New Belgium Ranger IPA-Kind of a surprise. I thought I could identify their yeast strain but could not. I do love Simcoe so maybe that is why I had it so high. . Noted floral and pine with a touch of citrus and nice malt balance.

5. Summit Saga-I thought this would finish in the top three. It was real close between this and Ranger and drinking them side by side afterwards I think I convinced myself I like this better but tasting blind I slotted Ranger ahead. Noted good bitterness…Pine…some minty notes..

*4 and 5 were very close

6.Pyramid Outburst-I thought it was more IPA than DIPA but it stuck out as a DIPA in this field with the stronger sticky malt sweetness. Still I slotted it here because I enjoyed it more than the other three.

7. Magic Hat Columbus Dry Hopped HIPA- I liked this when I had it recently but in this field it fell toward the bottom. I pulled a lot of “lemony” notes on the aroma and taste and some pine as well.

8. Big Sky IPA-Not a lot of hop flavor…more bitter….malt stronger with toffee…aroma perfumey

*6,7 and 8 were pretty tight when deciding

9. Sierra Torpedo-I was shocked when this was revealed. Never would have guessed it this low but here are my notes. “Very low hop aroma, not much flavor, some bitterness, muddled…not in the same league as the tops here”

Final Thoughts: A fresh two Hearted might have won this but Hop Dish is legit and once again my thoughts of O’Dell as an elite IPA are confirmed. Oh….and doing nine IPA’s in 2-3 hours is too much even for a big sturdy young lad such as myself. My brother had to cancel a trip to my house so instead of splitting them I had them all. Better to split.

 

Both were bought in my neck of the woods. One of the reasons I always get most of my IPA's when in the cities. I think the distributor up here just leaves them out until they are sold...whether its six months...nine months whatever...and then orders a new batch....just a hunch

 

It's a challenge and I can see how this might be intimidating to some but this isn't my first rodeo doing this. I've got a process for IPA's.

First I just smell them one by one and put them into tiers...then separate the tiers just by aroma. I take notes and write the order down...then turn the sheet over....

Then my wife mixes them up again and I start anew with tasting them all. Small tastes to begin with to begin to put into tiers. I use saltines and water to clear the palate when I feel it getting used up....as i develop my tiers...I am ranking within the tiers....then comparing high beer from tier 2 versus low beer from tier 1....I work from the top down and the last thing I usually do is separate beers at the bottom.

Once I have them 1-through-9 on taste I compare my notes from the aroma...usually the same ones are at the top but not always. If something seems out of place (beer with great aroma ranked too low on taste)....I reexamine that beer and compare to some higher beers. Sometimes a beer will have a nice aroma but the taste just falls short. I just want to make sure.

By the end I feel very strong about my general order and certainly the order at the top. I may quibble a little between #7 and #8 but at a certain point you just gotta make a call. I will usually note that it was real close between beer 7 and 8 or whatever.

*The entire process to get the rankings set took me a little less than two hours...with some short breaks in there..

Once I have the beers rated there is usually some beer left in every glass. Usually I do this with 6 ounce samples but this time it was 12 ounce samples so there was at least six ounces of each beer remaining. I then announce my #9 beer.....make my guess as to what it was....the person with the key tells me what it was...I finish drinking the rest of the beer before moving on to #8, and so on. This end process is what got me in trouble as I planned to take my time working from 9 down to 1 and drinking all those beers....but I got excited to find out the results and did the 9-to-1 countdown in about a half hour. It hit me pretty quick....definitely felt intoxicated rather than happily buzzed.

 

Great observation...People always like to think they have no biases based on those things but they do....I know I do...that's why I love doing these blind tasters...the one caveat to this is I have noticed a difference in the different batches of Saga....not sure this was one of the better ones....it was solid but I've had some that just blew me away...

 

Yes...do not ever try it...you could perish in the process...I'm damn lucky I made it out of it ok after now realizing some of the beer was 3-to-5 months old. And you know it's not like IPA's were originally made to travel long distances from say Great Britain to India and hold up over long voyages. No IPA's are definitely a fragile beer that would compare to spoiled produce when 3-to-5 months old. Yes I am damn lucky to still be sharing my thoughts here.

Also, I'm sure you've never ever had a beer that old that you bought at the store because as others have chimed in all stores only carry ultra fresh beer. I just happened to stumble onto some rare slightly older bottles on the shelves. i just have the worst luck I guess.

For the record none of the beers were officially "expired" or past their best by dates on he bottles. The ones that were not the freshest had "bottled on" dates. Each brewery is different for how long they expect their beer to remain good. If they would print best buy dates it would make it much easier to figure out. Then again some make it extremely difficult to even understand what the code means. I like how Summit does it with their best by dates. Why is this difficult for the others to do?

And no it was not like reviewing spoiled produce...far from it....much more enjoyable.

 

Oh I agree...no question IPA's fresh are better but I would hardly compare an IPA with five months on it to spoiled produce..I listed the dates so people would be able to keep the freshness of each beer in perspective in relation to the final results. Like I said I went all over town looking for fresher Two-hearted and came up empty.....again...I wanted fresh IPA's...it was not possible...I went with what I had and noted the dates....still not spoiled produce though