Well, it's been way too long of a hiatus. My lazy ass hasn't posted anything in over a year. And Rob... well dude's been lazier than me. On the bright side, our collective laziness has inspired many great homebrews and left plenty of time to drink some of the best beer there is to offer. So, about this homebrew. Well, like most we offer, it's a little different. This poor little beer is doomed to be tormented. We start with the basic concept of a Belgian-style tripel, but with some lemon and orange peel added as well as copious amounts of honey. All the other Belgian beers will mock it for its eccentricity.
To make matters worse for this beer, it is doomed to be tormented on the playground, for its name rhymes with a part of female (or male i suppose) anatomy. No, her name isn't Dolores... What we have here is "Gipple Tripel". Gipple, Gipple bo bipple, me mi mo.... you get the rest.
Like any poor teen, though, the awkwardness of puberty declines, and when this beauty is fully mature she will be dazzling. Updates are sure to come, but for now she's still in primary fermentation. After that will come secondary where she'll be dry-hopped and have more honey added.
Now, while brewing this beer, Rob and I had the pleasuring of sampling a rare beer in Hoptimum from Sierra Nevada. A double IPA that uses all whole cone hops and comes in at a huge 100 IBUs and 10.4% ABV. The beer pours a clear amber/orange with a frothy white head. The aroma is not as overwhelming as I had anticipated. Lots of resiny hops, mango, slight citrus, and some pine. The flavor is very aggressive with a very initial bitterness that really lingers and doesn't leave much room for a malt backbone. The hops are very astringent with only a slight sweetness coming through. The beer isn't quite balanced, but it certainly doesn't lose any points for this, as Sierra Nevada wants this to be a hop forward and aggressive beer. Two thumbs up, very nice, great success!
