Victory's Change of Hoppy Ales

Don't know the reason why but Dirtwolf and Hop Ranch are exponentially superior to any of their prior hoppy offerings. It's really changed my view of Victory very favorably.

I love the recipe tweaking and improvement.

 

I believe Hop Devil is sticking around...

 

I work for a distributor and to the best of my knowledge only Hop Wallop was disco'ed, not hop devil.

Dirt Wolf is beautiful. I haven't had hop ranch yet.

 

Agreed...the new Dirtwolf is great, and I'd love to try the Hop Ranch. It's brewed with the awesome Mosaic Hops, which imbue such a great aroma and flavor. Also looking forward to trying the Azacca Hops too.

 

Drinking my first hop ranch right now. You could say its pretty good! More emphasis on the A hop than the M hop though I am sure, as I know the M hop pretty well but it is there too for sure. 100% pilsner malt it looks like according to the website. Sounds like the base for my next brew session. This is a dangerously drinkable strong beverage. Well done again!

 

“More emphasis on the A hop”

How do the Azacca hops taste to your palate?

Cheers!

 

No need for alarm. They just discontinued one beer and brought out two new ones. Not a terrible decision either considering the positive attention they've gotten.

 

The Azacca hops have a big time berry/grape (I get a similar flavor in helles lagers) thing going on in my opinion. Dirtwolf and Hop Ranch couldn't be more different, but I absolutely love them both. Dirtwolf is more in line with what you (I) would expect from a high quality DIPA. Hop Ranch is a different animal entirely. If I didn't know better, I'd be tempted to call the beer an imperial pilsner and not an IPA, but that's not a bad thing at all.

Bottom line for me is that I support Victory's recent change-up even though I've always been a fan.

 

The brewers at victory have been putting out very nice representations of pilsners and lagers for close to two decades. They are also world class in the hoppy category, storm king was the #1 beer in the world at one point(whats really good Mr. topper).

Not really a new brew master but better equipment and more focus on what they want to do. I personally feel like Victory said "anything you can do I can do better" directing this at breweries that only focus on IPA and whatnot.

Regardless its all good from what I have tasted. Can't knock that.

 

Drinking a Hop Ranch for the first time right now... I am blown away. Make this year-round, Victory! Better than Dirt Wolf IMO. Hell, I like this more than Jai Alai. And I love Jai Alai.

 

Plenty of 2012 Hop Wallop in WI if anyone is looking for it. No sign of their new IPAs...

 

Just wait guys. They have a "Hop Ticket" series coming in 2014. 6 new one off draft only beers, every 2 months. Session IPA is first.... hoppy wheat, another hoppy pils, a harvest hop brew, a noble IPA and check this... a Hoppy sticke/alt beer!! a Bomber-only new rotating series will be coming as well.

 

The A hop to me, really really piney resinous citrusy vibe, like it a lot. It is for sure a high alpha bittering hop but may have some really nice aromatic properties as well. My first impression on tasting this beer was? are they using hop extract for bittering, but not in a bad way. I think that is where the mosaic is taking over though and adding some fruit to the mix. I do agree this could be pegged for an imperial pils, either way its a win for me

 

If you're not first you're last! That's why!

 

Might seem that way living in Florida, but for those of us living in SEPA there have been lots of signals, e.g. The Ranch series where Victory has explored a series of single hop DIPA beers, just as they have been doing locally for some years with single hop Pils style beers.

 

With a new brewery to handle production of flagship beers they will be able to go back to using their first brewery for increased exploration of one off batches, doing things like single hop beers for test of customer tastes and reactions. No announced plans to change Storm King. Yakima Glory is gone from the line up.

 

If you aren't constantly trying to innovate, or at least keep pace with what's going on in the industry, you will lose your following. We craft drinkers tend to be a fickle group and have little loyalty. I had hop wallop once, thought it was good, but an outdated style of DIPA. Dirt wolf, on the other hand, is bright, tropical, and aromatic, without the heavy lingering bitterness of the older style. Great stuff IMO . Looking forward to hop ranch hitting CA.