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Yuletide Beer Club

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I don't know why I called this a "Yuletide" beer club except that 'tis the season and I am a bit tipsy (alas, none of the beers we tasted were particularly festive). For the uninitiated, Beer Club is a monthly get together amongst friends and coworkers (and former coworkers) to share some beer and partake in general revelry. We have been woefully neglectful of late, and indeed, after just barely sneaking a September meeting in at the very end of that month, we did not manage a meetup in October or November. But we're back on track and managed a pretty good showing.

Yuletide Beer Club
(Click to embiggen)

For the sake of posterity, some thoughts on each beer are listed below. Standard disclaimers apply, we were at a sushi place, not a sensory deprivation chamber. Notes are below, in order of tasting, not necessarily in the order pictured.

  • Fat Head Trail Head Pale Ale - It's like a toned-down version of Fat Head's Headhunter, dank, piney hops, tasty, a decent start for the night. B
  • Lost Nation Gose - Yup, a beer we've had many times here, and it's a nice, light, tart beer that works well as a warmup beer.
  • Rubber Soul Dropout - A super fresh crowler from this brand newish (less than 6 months old) Maryland brewery that is rather obviously comprised of Beatles Fans. This is a pretty solid DIPA, nice citrus and pine hop presence, and a decent amount of bitterness too (this will come into question later in the tasting). B+
  • Trinity Red Swingline - Was not expecting much from this beer named after an Office Space reference, but it wound up being one of the better of the night, super funky and earthy, with a decent amount of hop presence, and only a hint of sourness. One of these days, I'm going to buy a waxed beer that will totally lead me astray, and I thought this might be it, but I guess not. Also of note, the wax job was rather weird, like they dipped it once, realized that wouldn't be enough, so they dipped it again, and then just said "fuck it" and dipped it a third time because why the hell not. This is important, and I am totally justified in writing more about the wax job than the beer itself. B+
  • Free Will DC Cranberry Farmhouse - I picked this up at the semi-local Free Will release on Sunday. A pretty nice little saison number, but it's more subtle than the beer we just drank, so I think it suffered a bit from the comparison. Still, it seemed pretty darned good. B or B+
  • Pretty Things Jack D'Or - Thus begins a little, informal tribute to the sadly now defunct Pretty Things brewing company, this is a little more sweet and raisiny than I remember, but it's still relatively dry and a great match for the sushi we were eating at this point. B
  • Pretty Things Hopfenpop! - This was not a fresh bottle and you could sorta tell, but it was nevertheless pretty good and held up pretty well. I would have liked to have tried this one fresh, but for this, I'll give it a B
  • Stone Double Bastard In The Rye - This wound up being a sweeter take on the Double Bastard (as compared to, say, Southern Charred or even the base beer), but the hop character survived and tries its darnedest to counteract the sweetness. Still one of my favorites of the night though, and pretty fantastic. B+ or A-
  • Troegs Impending Descent - The Scratch beer that keeps on giving, I managed to get up to Troegs this Black Friday and pick up some of this solid imperial stout, perhaps not as great as their initial vintage, I still love it.
  • Pretty Things Fumapapa - A very nice imperial stout with all the standard notes and an additional and very complementary smoked malt character that manages to make itself known without overwhelming anything (or making you wonder who put their cigar out in your beer). Very tasty, and damn, I'm going to miss these guys. A-
  • Dogfish Head Hoo Lawd - Yes, this beer's premise, brewed to 658 IBUs (apparently the highest confirmed measurement ever, despite some others with higher "theoretical" IBUs), is gimmicky and such things tend to be hit or miss, but this was indeed an interesting beer to try. It pours a jet black color (i.e. not very IPAish), has a nice hoppy nose, dank citrus and pine, and the taste starts off just fine, like a malt-forward IPA, then the bitterness starts coming in towards the finish and building through the aftertaste. It's kinda like when you eat a hot pepper and you're all this isn't so bad and then 10 seconds later your mouth is on fire and 10 seconds after that you think you might die. Alright, so it never quite approaches fear-of-death levels of bitterness, but it is very bitter, which isn't that unusual, except that this lingers for much longer than normal. I'm really happy I got to try it and would recommend getting a sample if you see it, but the smallish pour I got was plenty, and it's not something worth really hunting for. Interesting though and one of those things that makes it hard to rate. B
After the Hoo Lawd, we opened a couple of "palate cleansers" that were IPAs that basically tasted like water, so I won't really go into detail on those. The Rubber Soul Dropout fared slightly better, but still didn't taste bitter at all. Go figure. So that wraps up this beer share, look for more in January, I hope!

Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA

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I have a friend who has a really large head, but it pales in comparison to the fat head that represents the logo for Fat Head's Brewery. I have to admit, I initially find that bulbous looking thing a bit of a turn off, but they seem to have fun with the logo and you know, he seems happy. Even jolly! And as we all know, it's what's inside the bottle that really counts, so let's take a closer look at this Ohio brewery's wares. I was fortunate enough to procure a few Fat Head's beers thanks to a friend who was visiting the great state of Ohio (my army of mules is growing).

Legend has it, head brewer Matt Cole spent much of his youth living in a Yurt near Lake Constance in Austria, where he foraged for food and discovered some wild hops that he fell in love with. At the time, he just used it in his recipes, but when he served some "Hop-A-Noodle Soup" to wayward travelers who knew a thing or two about beer, they encouraged him to look into the beer brewing profession. Fast forward to 2009, when Cole was hired by Fat Head's. Already a well established craft beer bar, Fat Head's decided it was finally time to dip their toes into the fermented waters of brewing, and immediately made a splash, lead in part by this flagship brew, a well hopped West-Coast Style IPA. So how did it turn out? Pretty darn good:

Fat Heads Head Hunter IPA

Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA - Pours a slightly hazy golden orange color with a finger or two of fluffy white head, great retention. Smells of sticky, resinous hops, lots of pine, and some citrus hanging around too. Taste follows the nose, sweet with lots of piney, resinous hops, some citrus, maybe even some floral notes too. Nice bitterness pervading the taste from about the middle. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, well carbonated, a little sticky. Overall, it's a nice little hop bomb they've got here. Perhaps my bottle isn't the freshest, but as it is, I'm going with a B+

Beer Nerd Details: 7.5% ABV bottled (12 oz.) Drank out of a tulip glass on 7/20/13. Bottled 6/05/13.

It probably doesn't help that I had this in close proximity to another can of Heady, but what are you going to do? This is some great stuff though, and well worth checking out if you ever find yourself stranded in Ohio. I've got a pilsener and some sort of blueberry thing from Fat Head's as well, but this IPA is the stuff I really crave...

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Hi, my name is Mark, and I like beer.

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This page is an archive of recent entries in the Fat Head's category.

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