The turn out for the event was fantastic. In addition to the other great craft beer, we enjoyed 8 IPAs on tap: Russian River Blind Pig, Bear Republic Racer 5, Ninkasi Total Domination IPA, Stone Ruination IPA, Ballast Point Big Eye IPA, Brasserie d’Achouffe Houblon Chouffe, and Ale Industries East Bay IPA. The Ale Industries IPA was a  special treat because IPA Day at Rosamunde was one of the first places to have this new beer available. It seemed to be the crowd favorite too because it sold out by about 6:30pm.

It was great time and a great opportunity to meet old friends and even make a few new friends. Special thanks to Josh Margolis, owner of Rosamunde, and Ruggy Joesten, of Yelp, for making this so successful on such short notice, only 10 days.

Southern Tier is a craft brewery out of Lakewood, New York that produces 30,000 barrels of fine craft beer each year. An excellent example of their craftsmanship is one of their special limited availability beers called Imperial Gemini Blended Unfiltered Ale. This beer is not exactly what I expected from the East Coast. It has a strong citrus hop aroma with a strong bitter bite and was made from two of their other brews: Unearthly Imperial IPA and Hoppe Imperial Extra Pale Ale. This is a beer loaded with 6 varieties of hops and four different grains. Imperial Gemini, in particular, was given to me by Josh, a friend who lives in Vermont, so a special thanks goes out to him.

Date Reviewed. July 1, 2010

Where I Found It. A friend who lives in Vermont.

Serving Type. 22 oz. bottle to a glass.

Appearance. Despite its name, Imperial Gemini Blended Unfiltered Ale, this beer has a beautiful crystal clear orange-amber color. The off-white head head has tiny bubbles and a thick frothy texture and lasts quite a long time leaving a few traces on the glass. Update (April 26, 2011): This beer is “normally”not crystal clear. Most of the sediment had “filtered” to the bottom of the bottle and I didn’t bother to stir it up before serving.

Aroma. This beer has a soft  but potent citrus hoppy bouquet combined with a biscuit, amber, or toasted malt aroma. The aroma also has a hint of wildflower or orange blossom honey. There is also a hint of caramel in the smell. It reminds me a bit of butterscotch candy and orange candy at the same time.

Flavor. Imperial Gemini balances the strong malty sweetness of a high gravity ale with an intense flavor and bitterness of hops. The bitterness is smooth with a bite of spiciness and alcohol in the finish. Despite being 10% alcohol by volume, this beer does not have a boozy flavor.

Mouthfeel. As would be expected by such a high alcohol beer, the mouthfeel is viscous. When accompanied with the tiny bubbles or natural carbonation, this beer ends up with a soft creamy texture. This beer nicely combines bitterness, sweetness, and hoppy flavors and aromas to produce a wonderfully crafted beer.

Overall. Since the balance of sweet and bitter was so masterfully achieved with this beer, it is dangerously easy to drink much of this beer even though it is a 10% abv beverage.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score. Ratings are based on the BJCP score sheet. To get the BJCP score equivalent, multiply by 10. Note: I am not a BJCP judge, I just like the scoring system.

• Appearance (6%): 4.5
• Smell (24%): 4.5
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.5
• Overall (20%): 4.5
• Total: 4.3

Bottle Label

The Southern Tier website is quite nice and has all of their bottle label on their website. The label for Imperial Gemini can be found here. For posterity, the label reads as follows:

High in the winter sky, two parallel stick figures are visible & known as “the twins,” or the constellation Gemini. The astronauts of the 1960s flew as teams of two in a program named after the celestial pairing. At Southern Tier, we have our own fraternal twins, Hoppe & Unearthly. Blended together & placed in this vessel, the mission of our Gemini is to travel high & take passengers on a journey far into the heavens.

Information

• Style: Double IPA
• Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company [more info]
• Alcohol by volume: 10%
• Original Gravity: 1.092 specific gravity
• Final Gravity: 1.012 (calculated)
• Hops: Kettle: Columbus, Chinook, and Cascade. Aroma: Amarillo. Hop-back: Styrian Golding. Dry-hopped: Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Columbus.
• Grains: 2-row pale malt, malted white wheat, cara-pils malt, red wheat,

Other Reviews

• JustBeer: Southern Tier Imperial Gemini
• Mug of Saint Arnold: Souther Tier Imperial Gemini
• The Brew-Thusiast: Pizza + IPA = GOOD!

This is a “very limited release” beer by Speakeasy Ales and Lagers in San Francisco, CA that I believe was only available at the brewery. I enjoyed a pint of this tasty Double IPA at the Speakeasy Brewery for the Halloween party on Friday, October 29, 2010.

Deschutes Brewery is the number 6 craft brewery, by sales volume, in America (as of 20008 and 2009) and they continue to produce excellent products such as Hop Henge Experimental IPA. Hop Henge is part of Deschutes Bond Street Series, which features hop-forward beer that are inspired by the original Deschutes Brewery & Public House on Bond Street in downtown Bend, OR.

This beer almost seems like a hybrid between and American amber ale and an American double IPA. It is very hoppy with a smooth biscuity sweetness to it. Deschutes describes Hops Henge as follows:

First brewed in 2006, Deschutes Brewery’s Hop Henge Experimental IPA reappears this year with more extreme hop flavors than ever before. The new formulation is the epitome of the brewery’s experimental style and commitment to innovation, while gratifying their unquenchable thirst for beautifully balanced hoppy beers. The newest incarnation of Hop Henge uses several new hop processes and techniques to create a truly unique and unexpected beer.

Where I Found It. BevMo in Sacramento, CA.

Review Date. July 11, 2009

Serving Type. 22 0z. bottle

Appearance. Hop Henge has a crystal clear but bold red-amber color and you can see the bubbles rising to the top. It has a tan head that started off with loosely coupled bubbles but after that subsided the head was tighter, creamy, and long lasting. After drinking half the beer, there is still have about 3mm of head.

Smell. The aroma of this beer is slightly bready aroma with much stronger notes of biscuity malt coupled with a roasted quality. The hop bouquet is earthy, spicy, and a little floral with pine and maybe some cedar. Since this is made with Cascade and Centennial hops, I was expecting a little more citrus and more in-your-face hops smell. However, my bottle was about 3 months old.

Taste. Hop Henge has both spicy and smooth bitterness from the hops. Although this beer has 95 IBUs, it does not seem overly bitter. It has a nice noticeable bite but is not overwhelming. The biscuit aroma follows through in the flavor with malty sweetness that you taste up front followed by that wonderful hop flavor. The sweetness of the malt buffers the 95 IBUs of bitterness. This is an 8.75% abv beer and sometimes you can taste the alcohol astringency and sometimes you cannot.

Mouthfeel. The beer is nicely carbonated with small bubbles giving is a more creamy nature. It is a full-medium bodied beer with a hop spiciness. The spiciness is not burning like a chili pepper but the spiciness is more that of black pepper or ginger, with out the flavor of those of course.

Drinkability. It’s summertime and I’ve been craving a lot of IPA beer discovering it to be more refreshing in hot weather than I previously expected. This beer is a little sweeter than some of those other quenching IPAs that I had. That and the high alcohol content makes this not a session beer. It is so delicious however that you do want your entire 22 oz. bottle to yourself.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 4.5
• Smell (20%): 4.0
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.0
• Drinkability (10%): 3.5
• Overall: 4.05

Information

• Style: Double IPA
• Brewery: Deschutes Brewery
• Alcohol by volume: 8.75%
• Bitterness: 95 IBU
• Hops: Centennial, Cascade
• Malts: crystal, pale and carastan
• Beer Advocate rating: 4.1 (as of May 6, 2010)

Other Reviews

• The Brew Site – Hop Henge (2010)
• Drink Hacker – Review: Deschutes Brewery Hop Henge Experimental IPA
• The Full Pint – Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA
• It’s Pub Night – Hop Henge and Pliny the Younger
• Beer and Whiskey Brothers – Deschutes Hop Henge: What time is it?
• Hopzine – Hop Henge Experimental IPA
• Beer Advocate – Hop Henge Experimental IPA
• Rate Beer – Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA

Hop-15 Ale is a big double IPA brewed by Port Brewing in the town of San Marcos, CA in the San Diego area. This 10% alcohol by volume beer is brewed using 15 different varieties of hops that are added every 15 minutes. It was originally brewer for the 15th Anniversary of Port Brewing but is now available year round.

Hop-15 Ale has received numerous awards. The brewer’s website lists them off as follows:

It has won two silver medals at the Great American Beer Festival. It also was named Alpha King in 2004 and received a first place award at the Bistro Double IPA beer festival in Hayward, CA. Hop 15 remains won of the stickiest most resinous beers we have ever tasted and for that, we are thankful it is on tap at our brewery each and every day.

Where I Found It. BevMo in La Quinta, CA.

Date Reviewed. June 10, 2009

Serving Type. 22 0z. bottle to a glass.

Appearance. Hop-15 has a hazy appearance with an orange, clover-honey color. The head is an off-white tan color and the head does not last very long. The head does, however, last as a very very thin layer of loose bubbles on the top of the beer.

Smell. The hop bouquet of this beer is leafy green hops with a touch of pine and a hint of citrus and maybe just a bit of pineapple. The hop bouquet is not quite as intense as other IPAs and Double IPAs that I have tried recently. The aroma has a subtle roasty malt sweetness.

Taste. Hop-15 Ale starts with a smooth hop bitterness that is followed up by a bite of bitterness on the finish. The hops flavor is primarily spicy with a touch of pine. The citrus does not come out in the taste but I taste a little pineapple with the sweetness from the malt. It has a nice roasty and malted barley sweetness that smooths out the bitter hops that are jam packed into this beer. Although there is a lot of alcohol in this beer, this beer is not harsh and lacks astringency.

Mouthfeel. This is a medium to full bodied beer with plenty of carbonation that you can feel. The mouthfeel is about right.

Drinkability. Although Hop-15 is not a session beer due to the 10% alcohol by volume, it is a big giant tasty beer. After trying trying this beer, anything other than an IPA might taste flavorless. It is surprisingly smooth for being loaded with hops, which is likely due to the sweetness of the malt.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 3.5
• Smell (20%): 4.0
• Taste (40%): 4.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 3.5
• Drinkability (10%): 4.0
• Overall: 3.85

Information

• Brewers info: Hop-15 Ale
• Style: Double IPA
• Brewery: Port Brewing
• Alcohol by volume: 10.0%
• Original Gravity: 1.086
• Final Gravity: 1.014
• Hops: 15 different varieties
• Malt: Two Row and English Light Crystal
• Beer Advocate rating: 4.23 (as of September 25, 2009)

Caption on the Bottle

The following caption appears on the side of the bottle:

Out beer oozes all the hop goodness you would expect to find in a double IPA. In your nose, you will experience a citric hop quality which is balanced by a slight malt sweetness. The essence of a great double IPA is hops and as such the beer finishes with a pronounced spicy hop bite. Thankfully, for all of us hop-heads, we have decided to brew this beer more than once a year. Look for Hop 15 to make an appearance from time to time when space permits us to brew this one, one of our favorite ales.

Other Reviews

• Core Brewing – Pizza Port Hop 15
• The Full Pint – Review: Port Brewing Hop 15
• The Drunken Polack - Port Brewing Hop 15 Ale
• Slashfood – Port Brewing Hop 15 – Beer of the Week
• Hedonist Beer Jive – Port Brewing’s “HOP 15″ – Eeven a Giant May Stumble
• Beer Advocate – Hop 15
• Rate Beer – Pizza Port Hop 15

I picked up a 4 pack of Gordon Beer after tasting it during SF Beer Week at the Jug Shop Canned Craft Beers event. It left such an impression during the event that I had to take some more home to do a full review with pictures. Update (6/23/2011): Oskar Blues has renamed Gordon Beer to G’Knight Imperial Ale. At the time of writing this review, the beer was still called Gordon Ale.

Oskar Blues describes the style of Gordon Beer as “somewhere between an Imperial Red and a Double IPA” and it certainly fits that bill with a wonderful and intense hoppiness, 85 IBUs of bitterness, and a sweetness that creates a great balance and flavor.

Besides a great taste the other benefit of Gordon Beer is that it comes in a can. I’ve mentioned the benefits of cans for craft beer in previous articles but I’ll mention it again. Cans are both better for the beer and better for the environment. Cans hide the beer from the harmful affects of light and sunlight as well as keeping the beer more airtight. Environmentally speaking, cans are easier to recycle than bottles and are lighter so you can ship more cans per truck and save on fossil fuel usage. Finally, the plastic ring holders for Oskar Blues cans are photodegradable meaning that they break down quickly in sunlight.

This beer was formerly only available as a seasonal beer but is now available year round. The Oskar Blues website says the following about the origin of the name of the beer:

We brew Gordon in tribute to the late Gordon Knight. In addition to opening some of Colorado’s first microbreweries, Knight was a Vietnam vet, grade-A citizen, and huge promoter of craft beer. He lost his life in 2002 while fighting a wild fire outside of Lyons, Colorado.

Where I Found It. I picked up a four pack from The Jug Shop in San Francisco, CA. I was also graciously provided with some samples from an Oskar Blues representative. Thank you and cheers!

Serving Type. Served from a can into a glass.

Appearance. Gordon Beer has a standard off-white tan head that is pleasantly foamy and frothy. The head lasts an average amount of time and leaves a nice froth on the glass. The color of this beer is a wonderful red-orange or caramel amber and is very clear. It looks very inviting.

Smell. The hop bouquet leaps out of the can immediately after opening. I’ve never opened a bottle of beer and had the same experience. Gordon Beer has a wonderful hops smell that can be described as citrus, orange juice, pine resin, and floral like fresh cut flowers. I say fresh cut flowers because it has a nice green plant freshness to it. The aroma is like sweet barley malt and caramel. The combination of these attributes produces a smell that informs you that this will be a great tasting beer.

Taste. The taste of Gordon Beer lives up to the smell. The citrus and floral smells are delicious and clean on the tongue. It has a great malty and caramel flavor and is pleasantly more malty than I expected. The malt sweetness is accompanied by a slight nuttiness and roasty flavor, which probably comes from the chocolate malt. At 85 IBUs there is no doubt that this beer has loads of hop bitterness but it is not a harsh bitter flavor. The bitterness is smooth, which is due to a good balance of malt sweetness and probably hops low in cohumulone. For instance, I felt that Gordon Beer is smoother than Green Flash IPA and probably has as much, if not more, IBUs.

Mouthfeel. Although this beer is malty sweet and has 8.7% alcohol by volume it is seems about as dry as a beer with two-thirds the amount of alcohol. I would characterize this beer as medium to full bodied with a smooth and nearly creamy texture from the carbonation. The smooth bitterness lingers on the tongue and builds up over time.

Drinkability. Many super hoppy beers are great for about one beer. With Gordon Beer, however, I can, and have had, two while still wanting another. The bitterness level is high but the combination of flavors and hops make this beer smooth and easy to drink any time. Just take it easy drinking these beers, the high alcohol content can catch up with you quickly.

Rating. My ratings below are on a five point scale with five being the best score.

• Appearance (20%): 4.5
• Smell (20%): 4.5
• Taste (40%): 5.0
• Mouthfeel (10%): 4.0
• Drinkability (10%): 5.0
• Overall: 4.7

Caption on the Can

Each can of Oskar Blues Gordon Beer includes the following short caption on the back of the can:

If you knew Gordon Knight, this beer needs no explanation. If you didn’t, we’re sorry.

On the lip of the can the following text appears:

BIG. RED. STICKY.

[can'o bliss. satisfy ya.]

Information

• Style: Imperial IPA
• Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery
• Alcohol by volume: 8.7%
• Hops: 3 types of hops then dry hopped with Amarillo hops
• Malt: six types of malt including chocolate malt
• Beer Advocate rating: 4.12 (as of April 19, 2009)

Updates

• June 23, 2011: Oskar Blues renamed Gordon Beer or Gordon Ale renamed to G’Knight.
• June 23, 2011: Updated the photos to use the larger versions.

Other Reviews

• BeerDorks.com – Beer Reviews: Gordon
• The Opinionated Beer Page – Gordon Ale
• Eating & Drinking – Beer Review: Oskar Blues Brewery-Gordon Ale
• The Full Pint – Review – Oskar Blues Gordon
• Drink Craft Beer – Oskar Blues Gordon
• Fermentedly Challenged – Oskar Blues Gordon review
• The Brew Site – Gordon (Canned Beer Week follow-up)
• The Captain’s Chair – Oskar Blues Gordon
• BeerAdvocate – Gordon
• RateBeer – Oskar Blues Gordon
• 97 Bottles – Oskar Blues Gordon