Smashbomb Atomic IPA: Blind Tasting

[markaberrant]

I wish I could send you a bottle of this - http://hartandthistle.blogspot.com/2010 ... -dipa.html - lemon was no issue at all. More orange and tropical fruit. And absolutely delicious.

Yeah, I knew Nash did that one, would love to try it.

I recently brewed an IPA with large and equal amounts of simcoe and citra throughout. As Peter said, the citra is very unlike cascade - I would say it is unlike any other hop I have come across. I find the lemon a little much in my beer, but then it just won gold in IPA at the Vancouver Brewing Awards this past weekend, so someone obviously likes it. I have never actually been able to finish an entire pint of my beer - but when I go to dump out/rinse the glass in the morning, the aroma is huge tropical - so I'm thinking I just overdid it. It will be interesting to see what happens after the hops mellow a bit (brewed in March).

I know that fresh/overdone Simcoe is huge cat piss, but then becomes quite nice as it mellows. The best example I have come across with this is a really fresh bottle of Green Flash Imperial IPA - it was nothing but onion (Summit) and cat piss (Simcoe), but after about a month, it was back to the pure bliss I am accustomed to with this beer.

[dutchcanuck]

Hey Peter SO glad to hear that things are coming along!
I get to buy Hoptical on a weekly basis now, and I look forward to twisting the LCBO's arm and ensuring they stock netherworld as well. I really hope the new beer turns out. PLEASE keep us posted, hoppier the better I say, and I love trying new beers.

[icemachine]

The goal (this sounds so lame) of Smashbomb was to test the limits of hopping by experimenting with hops everywhere in the brew and FV....even in the mash.

I'm planning on doing private blind taste tests with Alpha King on June 19th if everything goes well. We are planning a tentative release party on this date as well. The taste test will be private and only involve a dozen Bar towelers. Again, it depends on my comfort level and the outcome of this first experiment. Bottles won't be available to Bartowlers until after the blind taste trials.

C'mon Peter, I don't fly back from Belgium until the 20th

[peterchiodo]

Hey Peter SO glad to hear that things are coming along!
I get to buy Hoptical on a weekly basis now, and I look forward to twisting the LCBO's arm and ensuring they stock netherworld as well. I really hope the new beer turns out. PLEASE keep us posted, hoppier the better I say, and I love trying new beers.

It is ambassadors like you that continue to keep us micros growing. Many thanks...
Peter

[cfrancis]

This is great news. I adore Alpha King and would love something similar coming out of Ontario. I just need to get my hands on it in Ottawa.

Congrats on the great hop beers! Keep up the great work.

[markaberrant]

I don't mean to detract from Peter's beer specifically, but just wanted to follow up on the Citra "lemon" character. On Friday, I came across this PDF - http://destroy.net/brewing/hopref.pdf - it specifically says Citra "in excess; catty, pledge." This is exactly how my beer was! However, I shared a bottle on Saturday with 3 other tasters and we loved it, all hints of lemon were gone.

Like I say, sorry for the semi-off topic posts, I'm just quite fascinated by new hop varieties, as well as how hop aromatics change with intensity and age.

Wish my lips could taste this beer at some point! Glad to see Ontario brewers cranking up the hops!

[mintjellie]

An old friend of mine came up to Barrie on the weekend. I showed her around town, and along the way I asked her if she wanted to sample the beer at the local brewery. She thought it was a great idea. The young lady working in the store asked this friend of mine what she usually drinks, to which she replied "Canadian." She poured her some Antigravity, and she loved it.

I had some Netherworld, and she tried some of mine. She loved that too, and commented on it being very malty.

Then she had some Hoptical, and said it tasted like pot. I can see how a chronic pothead could compare the taste of hops to weed. Needless to say, she loved the Hoptical as well.

She left the brewery with a mixed six - two Antigravity, two Confederation, and two Hoptical.

And hopefully, she'll buy more next time she finds herself looking at sixer in her local LCBO.

Keep up the good work, you're winning converts.

[peterchiodo]

An old friend of mine came up to Barrie on the weekend. I showed her around town, and along the way I asked her if she wanted to sample the beer at the local brewery. She thought it was a great idea. The young lady working in the store asked this friend of mine what she usually drinks, to which she replied "Canadian." She poured her some Antigravity, and she loved it.

I had some Netherworld, and she tried some of mine. She loved that too, and commented on it being very malty.

Then she had some Hoptical, and said it tasted like pot. I can see how a chronic pothead could compare the taste of hops to weed. Needless to say, she loved the Hoptical as well.

She left the brewery with a mixed six - two Antigravity, two Confederation, and two Hoptical.

And hopefully, she'll buy more next time she finds herself looking at sixer in her local LCBO.

Keep up the good work, you're winning converts.

Thanks, man.....It is really amazing how many women are coming over to the dark side and digging Netherworld.
Also, we get a lot of resin comments on Hoptical. That cascade/amarillo blend is weird. It is all in the spirit of the 420 movement which we support here at the brewery.

Yours in 420ing,
Peter

[mintjellie]

Did you tweak the recipe on Netherworld since I last had last December? I had a little pour of it at the brewery, and it seemed a little bit maltier then I remembered it.

[peterchiodo]

Did you tweak the recipe on Netherworld since I last had last December? I had a little pour of it at the brewery, and it seemed a little bit maltier then I remembered it.

Oh yeah. We thickened up the body from the first batch based on feedback. The next tweak...increase the dry hop time through the hoppapotamus to balance out the increased malt character (in the spirit of the aberration of style--or lack there of-whatever that means).

P-

[SteelbackGuy]

Keep up the great work Peter. I was recently in Hamilton and went to a small Italian bistro called Al Centro. I was quite surprised to find both Anti Gravity and Hoptical Illusion on tap. We were all quite satisfied with this and the food as well.

[peterchiodo]

Keep up the great work Peter. I was recently in Hamilton and went to a small Italian bistro called Al Centro. I was quite surprised to find both Anti Gravity and Hoptical Illusion on tap. We were all quite satisfied with this and the food as well.

Yeah, there are some cool pockets of micro-friendly places in Hamilton. I hope it tasted fresh! FYI - I'm thinking of coming to London for an event during OCB week. Hope to see you out!

[SteelbackGuy]

Keep up the great work Peter. I was recently in Hamilton and went to a small Italian bistro called Al Centro. I was quite surprised to find both Anti Gravity and Hoptical Illusion on tap. We were all quite satisfied with this and the food as well.

Yeah, there are some cool pockets of micro-friendly places in Hamilton. I hope it tasted fresh! FYI - I'm thinking of coming to London for an event during OCB week. Hope to see you out!

It was very fresh, and yes, you will see me if you do come down. I'm sure Adil and Milos and Mike and everyone else would love to see you!

[peterchiodo]

Yoey, Courtney, and I tasted Smashbomb post-hoppapotamus today.
We pulled a pitcher from the FV and here are our comments. We tasted it with fresh, clean buds.

Our first general comment was "Holy shit, this beer has aroma." And it was actually a pleasant aroma, too. I had memories of Saturday mornings when I was a kid having a grapefruit with 9 tablespoons of sugar heaped on it. I was a bit worried with some of the earlier posts on Citra (the cat pee comments worried me), but this is a hop that just needs a few days to work its mojo. It starts off as a devilish, snarky little bitch that, with a little patience, turns into a shing star. That hop morphs over time --no lie.

So we tasted it. The 70IBUs are pronounced, I mean, this brew was bitter, but it was also incredibly drinkable (yes at 70ibus). The oddity that kept us passing the pitcher was that as this incredibly bitter front subsided we swore we tasted the Munich malt. The flavour of Citra was so damn intriguing we kept on sampling...and sampling.

Yoey thought it tasted like a pomegranate. Before we knew it we had downed this crazy pitcher of unfiltered beer in hop purgatory. Five minutes later we were all light headed, and then I'd realized we just drank 60 ounces of something like a 7% alcohol beer on an empty stomach. It was the start of a good weekend.

Yours in Citra,
Pethro

[shintriad]

Yoey, Courtney, and I tasted Smashbomb post-hoppapotamus today.
We pulled a pitcher from the FV and here are our comments. We tasted it with fresh, clean buds.

Our first general comment was "Holy shit, this beer has aroma." And it was actually a pleasant aroma, too. I had memories of Saturday mornings when I was a kid having a grapefruit with 9 tablespoons of sugar heaped on it. I was a bit worried with some of the earlier posts on Citra (the cat pee comments worried me), but this is a hop that just needs a few days to work its mojo. It starts off as a devilish, snarky little bitch that, with a little patience, turns into a shing star. That hop morphs over time --no lie.

So we tasted it. The 70IBUs are pronounced, I mean, this brew was bitter, but it was also incredibly drinkable (yes at 70ibus). The oddity that kept us passing the pitcher was that as this incredibly bitter front subsided we swore we tasted the Munich malt. The flavour of Citra was so damn intriguing we kept on sampling...and sampling.

Yoey thought it tasted like a pomegranate. Before we knew it we had downed this crazy pitcher of unfiltered beer in hop purgatory. Five minutes later we were all light headed, and then I'd realized we just drank 60 ounces of something like a 7% alcohol beer on an empty stomach. It was the start of a good weekend.

Yours in Citra,
Pethro

Sounds awesome! Looking forward to it.