Lagunitas is now in Manitoba! Well, I'm excited and kind at the same time kind of 'meh'd' by it because well.. Lagunitas is in Manitoba.. and the brewery's now owned by Heineken. I guess it's better to be bought out by Heineken than AB-InBev though. Prior to tonight, the only times I've ever tried Lagunitas was thanks to Jonny! Jonny and I are heading to Montreal and Vermont next week for a bièrcation.. a bièrcation I can't afford, especially with the low CAD-USD exchange rate. Ah well, I have to have fun once in a while, right?!
Lagunitas' Hop Stoopid Ale and A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' ale are the two new arrivals in Manitoba.. no idea if there's plans for more beers to make its way here in Manitoba, but time will tell. Their Hop
Appearance: Hop Stoopid pours a lightish golden yet amber ale. Really good carbonation taking place with there being a lot of micro-bubbles in streams just like the beer bubbles I'd watch in my parents beers as a child. It has a bit of a creamy beige head, about 1.5 fingers thick and there's a good amount of foam sticking to the side of the glass.
Aroma: It's been a while since I had a beer with 100+ IBU.. I think it was back in the early fall. I miss hops. This one is a strong bitter hop-filled beer. The notes I'm getting here are a heck load of pine, a huge parfumic note of grapefruit, a smidge of dill, some pepper to give it a bit of spicy itchy herbal notes to the notes. So, incredibly bitter.. but.. there's also some sweet tropical notes popping here and there, such as a hint of orange peel and the typical lemon zest. I can tell that this isn't fresh off the line but hey.. this is a great smelling DIPA so far!
Taste: Bitter right from the very millisecond it hits my tastebuds. I get a bitter grapefruit fruitiness in there mixed up with fresh cut pine, a hint of lemon, a bit of copper and a good hint of orange peel. As the beer mellows, I get more of a yeasty, bready bite from the flavour.. yet the hops seem to be in charge of this brew. As I'm drinking this, I'm not getting that acid burn from the bitterness yet.. so that's always a plus, but ask me in 3 hours from now what I think!
Overall Thoughts: Considering it's now a Heineken product, if I had to choose between this, Goose Island IPA (brewed at Kokanee) or Rickard's Red IPA, I would splurge $3+ for this over the others. It's been a long time since I had a bitter DIPA that wasn't too overpowering on hops to the point where I'm burping non stop in 2 hours, yet has enough to make me miss drinking incredibly hoppy beers in the first place. I will be buying this again, even if I'm already broke as eff.
8.0% ABV, 102 IBU
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