UPDATED 4/23/2012
It's April - and that means IPApril at Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle! All month long, BPP will have 12 taps devoted to IPAs of all varieties. No spcific tap list has been posted, but you can usually get a good idea of what Beveridge Place has on tap over at Taplister, which currently lists all 12 IPA's things kicked off with on April 1st.
Me With Don Webb (Naked City) and Gary Sink (Beveridge Place Pub)
A bit more than halfway through the month, April 17th, is Beveridge Place Pub's anniversary, and to celebrate they'll have a clear (as in see-through) keg of Georgetown Brewing's Lucile IPA (BPP's current 'house' IPA, based on voting last year), so you can watch the beer in the keg as it drains.
There will also be a 'blind' taste challenge on April 19th, with double IPAs being featured. The idea here is the same as the 4 daily blind taps over at Cooper's Alehouse for their 10th Annual IPA Fest. Can you pick our your favorite double IPA without knowing it? Test your taste buds and find out.
UPDATE 4/20:
I wasn't able to make it down to Beveridge Place for their Anniversary on the 17th, but I did make it there yesterday for their Double IPA Blind Tasting as part of IPApril. The challenge? 8 different Double IPAs, in 3oz pours, and we were asked to vote for our favorite 3.
I got my taster tray, settled in and took some sparse notes as I tasted each offering. Here are my rankings 1-8, for each beer on the taster tray. They were labeled on the tray with the letters only:
1 - E - Citrusy - Grapefruit - More hops than malt - My kinda IPAWhen the beer names are revealed, I'll update this post again and find out how my rankings look. Cheers!
2 - F - Great Balance of hops/malt - Nice aroma
3 - C - Citrusy - A bit more cloudy than the rest
4 - B - Slight passion fruit quality
5 - H - Caty - but still good (Simcoe hops(?))
6 - D - Some sediment (Yeast? Wood? Didn't taste like it - not sure)
7 - A - Too malty for a double IPA
8 - G - Toffeish - and way too malty (almost cloying considering what I was expecting)
UPDATE 4/23:
Sorry I wasn't more on the ball on Friday, but here are the winners:
The Taps were:
A-Avery Maharaja
B-Russian River Pliney the Elder
C-Port Hop-15
D-Leavenworth Double Hodgsons
E-Black Raven Wisdom Seeker
F-Sierra Nevada Hoptimum
G-Port Townsend Dead Sea
H-Sound Humulo Nimbus
And the winners are:
1st: Black Raven Wisdom Seeker (E) - This was my first choice.
2nd: Russian River Pliny The Elder (B) - This was my fourth choice.
3rd: Avery Maharaja (A) - This was my 7th choice! Very surprising. I didn't realize it was so malty.
Congratulations to Black Raven Brewing in Redmond for their well-deserved win!
So, what were your choices? Did you pick out any favorites even while blind? I found it interesting that I picked out Hoptimum as my 2nd favorite. It was also my 2nd favorite during the 'California Dreaming' Double IPA blind tasting at Cooper's Alehouse. That means, it would seem, that Firestone Walker Double Jack, Black Raven Wisdom Seeker and Sierra Nevada Hoptimum are my three favorite double IPAs. That's good to know for the next time I head to the bottle shops!
Cheers!
Drink responsibly and stay safe out there.
I've noticed that Maharaja is EXTREMELY unpredictable. In bottle, I've never liked it. Too malty. On tap, I swear I usually don't like it. I had it at Naked City recently and it was so bright and citrusy - I was blown away. I think we're dealing with a freshness issue here. To me, dead hops make for crappy IPAs but some people like when the malt shows thru more. Hmmm.
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