Tallgrass Brewing Co. - IPA

This is a special review for me. A couple months ago on twitter I stumbled upon the Tallgrass Brewing Co. out of Manhattan, Kansas. I then sent them a playful tweet wishing I could taste some of their beer. Obviously, Tallgrass is not sent to Pennsylvania or I wouldn’t have asked. Not only did Tallgrass Brewing Co. send in four of their flagship beers, Tallgrass’ founder Jeff Gill sent a handwritten note. Extremely classy, thank you very much Jeff. Today is going to be the first of a four part series on the Tallgrass beers I was sent. We’re going to look at their IPA today:

Tallgrass Brewing Co. IPA - Manhattan, Kansas
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: 60
Pricepoint: ?

The Tallgrass IPA has an interesting history (as is viewed on their website). But basically, it was a homebrew recipe that was then refined into the beer we have today. They also give a little history on the IPA itself.

Another aspect of Tallgrass that should really be recognized is their devotion to canning craft beer rather than bottling it. You can read Tallgrass’ “canifesto” on their website.

But onto the beer.

The beer pours a hazy, pumpkin colored orange. Relatively aggressive carbonatoin upon viewing. The head is an eggshell white that dissipates relatively quickly leaving a layer of wonderful bubbles on top.

Obviously, since it’s an IPA, the nose is hop-aggressive but there is a really solid malt backbone to this brew. Really looking forward to tasting it, I am already impressed.

The beer begins very piny-hop forward and then quickly moves into the pale malt backbone with the hops taking the main stage at the end of the taste again. I’m not too sure about the hop varieties in the beer.

This IPA can definitely hold it’s own with other craftbeer IPAs out there right now. People in Kansas are lucky to be able to obtain Tallgrass Brewing Co’s beers. They’re doing great things out there in the Great Plains. Again, thanks to Jeff and the crew at Tallgrass Brewing Co for a taste of Kansas craft beer!

Cheers!

Dogfish Head - Aprihop

Today’s review is a special beer for me. It comes to you from Dogfish Head in Milton, Delaware. Aprihop is Dogfish’s “fruit beer for people who hate fruit beers” as Sam Calagione aptly puts it. I first tasted this beer at the Dogfish Head event at Earth Bread and Brewery in Philadelphia and was blown away by it. On to the beer:

Aprihop is an American IPA that clocks in at 7.0% ABV with a modest 30 IBU’s. What really makes the beer unique, obviously, is the addition of real apricots to the mash. If you’ve read the previous post on the Dogfish event that I went to, you’ll know that Sam actually has been brewing this beer for many years but he wanted to bring it back to it’s original hoppiness because over the years it had grown into a fully fruit beer. The 2010 version is the only I’ve tried and I hope they don’t change it!

Aprihop pours a deep amber with an off-white head that sticks around for the entire ride. Modest lacing also is apparent. 

The nose is what first blew my mind. It starts off as if you’re sniffing their 90-minute IPA and then after you’ve deeply inhaled there is this wonderful fruity, apricot aroma. The hop aroma is balanced by the excellent malt backbone. 

The taste is a three gradient taste I think. It starts of sipping like a regular IPA and then slowly develops into this excellent hoppy, apricot flavor. The sweetness of the apricots are never overwhelming but compliment the hoppiness excellently.

The drinkability on this is high but the ABV will hit you quickly. I paired this with a tuna fish sandwich with banana peppers and it worked wonderfully. Big ups to Dogfish as usual. I may be a Dogfish fanboy but hey, nothing better to be a fanboy of eh?