Friday, February 11, 2011

Hoperation (Phillips)

I feel that my postings must be stepped up a notch. L4B is not the only beer blog in town. I used to compete with Dave, but he is too busy getting pounded by demolition to post. Not sure what Dan is doing? Perhaps he is working on his latest uber-post or just slacking. Now there is this new guy in town: DamnBeerBlogger. He/She is very long winded but very entertaining. He also must be related to Rex Murphy or owns a thesaurus because he uses a lot of big words. Time for L4B v 2.0.

This beer is good. It tastes like nice stuff and not like cabbage.

Hoperation Tripel Cross (Phillips) = 9/10


Supposedly this brew will replace the Surly Blonde Ale; thank goodness. Maybe it is just me but the Surly has gotten blander over the years. This is a new combination of two old favourites: a Belgian IPA. Imagine a great IPA and use a Belgian yeast to add those spicy and peppery phenols to the brew. Truly a thing of beauty when pulled off correctly, as with this example. The nose is big with a strong, but varied hop variety. It strayed into the tropical fruit arena with a bit of tangerine and spice. The malts were there - yes, yes apricots, cereal and honey - but what about the spicy phenols and dry-side hops? It had it all: yeasty, sweet hops, tangerine, cotton candy, topical fruit, apricots and peppery spices. The full body left a long alcohol warmth of hop soup and white pepper residue. It was no Orval or Le Freak but darn close. Definitely made up for the Dr. Skunk Funkle.

Taste +4
Aftertaste +2
Alcohol Content +1 8%
Value +1
Appearance +1 (nice label as always)

New Belgium Trippel
Piraat
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