The Bar Towel

So, wudja get? How do ya like 'em? And are any of them new for you?

Titan IPA - not bad, new to me - quite flavorful hops. Ballpark of 60min but different in a lot of ways.

Oak Aged Yeti - VERY new to me, I will need to 'adjust' to the hop/woody aggressiveness. Impressively black & malty.

-- footnote: --

The OA Yeti has such an unfamiliar character - it just seemed so rough at first - I really only enjoyed it halfway though the first bomber I opened. Reminds me of Schlenkerla in this regard only.
Big rich flavor - lots of malts, very concentrated & yet somehow balanced. Interesting effort!

How's this for a tasting challenge - get a couple of friends together and sample the following as available:

- Black Oak Pale Ale
- Mill Street Tankhouse
- Sgt Majors IPA
- Titan IPA
- Dogfish Head 60 Minute
- Hercules Double IPA

I tried all my selections - Titan, St. Bridget's and Yeti on the weekend. All excellent, although Yeti isn't much of a "drinking by the lake at the cottage" kind of beer. I'll probably save them for the fall & winter.

I was able to try all the flavours of my stash over the weekend. Finally...

Titan IPA: I REALLY liked this one. The drop in the price makes me wish I would have picked up another case. It had a great hop flavour and nose that wasn't as piney or citrusy as I expected but more floral and fruity than the Dogfish Head 60 minute. I also found the malt finish to be cleaner than the 60 minutes.

Hercules Double IPA: Awesome nose! This beer just reeks of hops. Flavour wise it struck me as being a next level Titan IPA but with more malt flavour: it was still hoppy. Having never tried a Double IPA before the hops were not quite as strong as I expected. I quite enjoyed the beer, but I probably liked the Titan more.

Oak Aged Yeti: Cass pretty much summed it up:

Cass wrote:All excellent, although Yeti isn't much of a "drinking by the lake at the cottage" kind of beer. I'll probably save them for the fall & winter.

I liked it, but not as much as Rogue Imperial Stout. Maybe the oak flavour is a little too heavy handed for now. I'm looking forward to trying it again in the October/November.

Overall, I wish I could have gotten the Hercules and Yeti in the smaller bottles.

flip wrote:Overall, I wish I could have gotten the Hercules and Yeti in the smaller bottles.

Great Divide made them available in small bottles just after we placed our order.

GregClow wrote:

flip wrote:Overall, I wish I could have gotten the Hercules and Yeti in the smaller bottles.

Great Divide made them available in small bottles just after we placed our order.

AFAIK that's the regular Yeti (NOT the Oak Aged Yeti) in new 12oz size.

http://www.greatdivide.com/index.php?itemid=123

But I sorta like the Oak Yeti in the bad-ass 650ml bombers. The antithesis of Mill Street Organic in the pipettes, ha ha (just kidding I love you folks at MS.)

Anyway, a large-volume bottle is better for ageing, something Oaked Yeti is perfect for. If I can restrain myself to wait.

Belgian wrote:Anyway, a large-volume bottle is better for ageing, something Oaked Yeti is perfect for. If I can restrain myself to wait.

I could hold them for you so there's no temptation. For a fee of course. You can be rest assured I have no interest in consuming them.

I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with the Titan IPA. A good, smooth, strong summer beer with tons of fresh hops in the nose.

The Oak Aged Yeti was good, but perhaps a bit of overkill. Nevertheless, we'll see what happens to them after a few years of cellaring.

Either way, a damn good call.

I like the Titan. The porter I am less sold on.