DIPA Battle Royale

Double IPA ("DIPA") or Imperial IPA ("IIPA"), whichever you fancy, has become the crown jewel of the craft brewer. The DIPA allows the brewer to showcase his (or her) hop and malt prowess to the max. DIPAs typically have alcohol content in excess of 8% by volume. International Bittering Units (general measure of a beer's bitterness, although there is some controversy on how IBUs should be calculated) are very high, 70+ are typical for the style. The "imperial" reference in the latter name for this style is most likely a tip of the hat to the Russian "Imperial" Stout, a significantly stronger version of the English Stout.

This truly American invention, most likely started in San Diego - generally most people recognize that the first DIPA (at least the first commercial DIPA) was brewed in 1994 by Vinnie Cilurzo of the Blind Pig Brewing Company (currently the owner of Russian River Brewing!). Cilurzo claims he "accidentally" created the style by adding 50% too much malt to his mash tun. He then "corrected" this mistake by adding 100% more hops.

Some argue that many of the stronger DIPAs could be alternately classified as American barleywines or even, dare I say, a Triple IPA ("TIPA"). As a relatively new style, it is still being determined. It is currently one of the fastest growing styles in the craft beer industry.

In the last two weeks I had the pleasure of trying three new (at least they were new to me) DIPAs.

Ohhh it's on!

Dogfish Head Burton Baton

In this corner the east coast king of hops, Dogfish Head. Most everyone in this area is familiar with Dogfish and their portfolio of adventurous beers. Dogfish can claim at least 3 different DIPAs in their "regular" rotation of beers: 90 minute IPA, 120 minute IPA (although if you are going to have a TIPA category, this one would fit the bill), and Burton Baton.

Burton Baton as described by DFH is, "a blend of oak-aged English strong ale and our 90 Minute I.P.A." First, this beer is quite difficult to find, I had been looking for it for close to a year. Well having a wife who works at a beer store has its perks. Mrs. HolzBrew was able to pick us up two bottles of this last week, after Norm's received all of two cases from the distributor. It weighs in at a strong 10% ABV.

Look: Hazy amber with a moderate lining of off-white lace. Absolutely sticks to the side of the glass.

Smell: Aroma is noticeably oaky and woody, with a sweet, malty aroma. The hops are herbal and blend well with the oaky aroma, but not overly hop pungent as some DIPAs can be.

Drink: Citrusy, spicy, and earthy hop flavor, but no over the top hoppiness. Lots of maltiness, tons of sticky sweet caramel flavor. A little oakiness towards the end. Despite the high ABV level there is very little in the way of noticeable alcohol astringency.

Overall Grade: I thought this was a pretty cool beer. I guess my only critique was that it was a little too sweet, making it difficult to ever drink more than one per evening. Good stuff from a great brewer, I give it an B+ overall.


Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

In this corner, the west coast king of trash talk, Stone Brewing Company. A lot of people know Stone from their Arrogant Bastard Ales as well as their incredible IPA and regular year round DIPA offering, Stone Ruination. Multiple times Mrs. HolzBrew has claimed that Stone makes hands down the best American IPA on the market, this coming from a woman who knows her hops is no distinction to be taken lightly. Well every year Stone releases an anniversary ale and wouldn't you know they decided to go big this year to declare that they have finally become a teenager. As described by Stone, "Stone 13th Anniversary Ale has 4.5 lbs of hops per barrel-more hops per barrel than any beer Stone has ever brewed." Impressive to say the least. (Note: Technically Stone is calling this an Imperial Red, I'm not sure there is much of a significant difference and I thought it was close enough to a DIPA to be included in this competition.) 9.5% ABV.

Look: Pours up a deep red, but completely clear, no haze whatsoever. I'm always impressed at how clear Stone beers are. Thick ring of head.

Smell: Citrusy, grapefruit and piney hoppiness. Additionally, the malt is also there with caramel, and toffee aroma. Smells awesome.

Drink: Big citrus flavors come out in the front, a little oily. Then very malty flavors through the middle, toffee and caramel like flavor. Finishes noticeably bitter but not brutally bitter. Complex and very balanced.

Overall Grade: Pretty Awesome! If you can find it on the shelves and you like hops, pick it up. Overall Grade A-.

He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.

In this corner the King of the Jews, He'Brew Brewing. I can't remember if I have tried this one before. But lucky me they had it on tap two weeks ago at Galaxy Hut in Clarendon. He'Brew makes some pretty good stuff, I reviewed their Jewbelation 12 back around Christmas (or more appropriately Hanukkah), and loved it. I actually believe they are a contract brewer and a lot of their stuff is brewed by Anderson Valley. You gotta love a brewer with a sense of humor though. I believe this one is dedicated to the late Lenny Bruce. Another big one at 10% ABV.

Look: Pours a very copper color. Topped healthy and thick, off-white foam head with great retention.

Smell: Piney and resiny hop nose with some slightly peppery notes most likely form the rye. Aroma also is sweet maltiness with caramel and even some tropical fruit in there.

Drink: A very dense chewy and creamy mouthfeel. The taste is malty no doubt with lot of syrupy fruit flavor and caramel, and toffee notes. Huge hop flavor of grapefruit, orange, and a spicy pine. A little noticeable alcoholic heat on this one , but it complements the spiciness of the rye and bready flavors quite well.

Overall Grade: This beer is straight baller. Crazy delicious like Mr. Pibb and Red Vines. A+++.


Well, it was a great battle, but my favorite DIPA of these three has to be the He'Brew Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.. Quite honestly if you are a self described hophead you'll love all three of these.

Keep it DIPA, IIPA, or TIPA,

HolzBrew

A Night of Debauchery

Ahhh yes, we all have our guilty pleasures. And sometimes we take it to the excess. Well, the wife has girls night tonight and I was left all on my lonesome. What's a fella to do? Indulge in temptation!

Knowing that I would be left to my own devices I swung by ... KFC on my way home. That's right HolzBrew, a man with such a sophisticated palate, secretly loves mass produced fried chicken. As I was near Norm's Beer and Wine, I stopped in to pick up some beer to accompany my bucket-o-sin. After informing Jeff, one of Norm's finest lieutenants, of my intentions he vehemently recommended Rogue's Dad's Little Helper Malt Liquor. I admit to have fallin' way too easily.

How does it end? Well the Colonel never disappoints (perhaps its his high ranking military title). First, don't be deceived by the measly three pieces of fried chicken you see served up above. I managed 7 pieces and that did not include any wings. I suspect my stomach won't be thanking me in the morning. But what about the beer? Well its a malt liquor, and it bought back some suppressed memories from college that's for sure. But here is a review for heaven's sake:

Look: Poured with some bubble bath style (sudsy) white head that faded expeditiously. Straight yellow in color.

Smell: Aroma of grainy malt. I detect some corn in the background and a slight note of ethanol.

Drink: Upfront sweet taste, just enough hops to keep the malt from being overwhelmingly cloying. Graininess and alcohol presence are showcased to say the least. Finishes sweet.

Overall: C

As far as malt liquor goes I guess this is the best I've ever had, but that's not saying too much. It served its purpose as a redneck accompaniment to my fried chicken. But I believe the shelf price was $5.99 for the 22oz. bottle, there are so many better choices in the same tax bracket.

Keep it greasy and malted,

HolzBrew

Northern Virginia to Get New Brewery!

This information came straight from Beer Advocate, I take no credit.

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/2125150

From the post:

"Matt Hagerman and Favio Garcia, formerly brewers for Ashburn VA's Old Dominion Brewing Company are planning a fourth quarter 2009 opening of a new Brewery in Ashburn. M.A. Hagerman Brewing Company..."

and

"The Company will house two distinct brands: Rhino Chasers™ Brewing Company and later, Catoctin Brewing Company."

and

"Hagerman and Garcia are in negotiations for a local space, and they are actively raising funding from local investors by selling company membership interests through a private placement offering."


Always great news to hear new breweries opening in the area. The DC area is somewhat under saturated with local brewing in my opinion. I wonder if these guys would be up for a contract brewing deal with yours truly, to get the HolzBrew brand off the ground. Things that make you go, hmmmmmm.


-HolzBrew

NoVa Brew Fest: Summer 2009

Volunteered once again for the 2009 Summer NoVa Brewfest. This festival is great and it's pretty much 100% jerk-free. Everyone is out for an afternoon of fun in the sun (or cloudy overcast-ness as it was today). My friend Brent and I worked the Troegs tent and poured Hopback Amber and Sunshine Pils all afternoon. People really dig the Hopback Amber, we poured a ton of that stuff.

I was fairly cautious with the drinking this time, because I was driving Brent and I home, so I didn't go too crazy tasting all of the great brews available. I did try a few things, and really loved the Star Hill Northern Lights IPA. I got the chance to try the Apollo Double IPA offered by Troegs as part of their scratch series. It weighs in at a monstrous 115 IBU. I asked the brewery rep what hops are used in it and he responded, "Pretty much everything that we could find." This thing was crazy hoppy, which was great for a hop head like me.

An awesome afternoon. Everyone should consider volunteering for the fall version of this festival, guaranteed great times. There is really no downside to volunteering. You get to attend the festival for free, get to know the brewery reps, and meet a lot of new people that approach your booth for a tasting. The volunteer management is always very helpful and they regularly come around and allow you to take breaks from your pouring responsibilities (i.e. walk around and sample beer).

Get your volunteer on,

HolzBrew

Currently pouring beer for troegs @ the nova brewfest. stop by!

Interview with a Brewer: Bill Madden

For today's post I arranged an interview with a really great guy, local brew legend Bill Madden. The interview was prompted by my interest in the Mad Fox brewpub that I have been hearing about around town for the last year or so that is supposed to be opening right in my backyard, Falls Church. Without further ado:

Holz: I heard about the possible future opening of Mad Fox Brewing last fall from some friends, how long has Mad Fox been in the works?

Bill: Mad Fox Brewing Company has been in the works for some time and has always been my dream. I think it got serious about three years ago when a great friend of mine and current business partner, Rick Garvin, started to mentor me on how to go about developing a business. We would talk and then I would be given a task list to go out and work on and then I would get busy with a beer festival or some other distraction. The business took longer and longer to develop. Then Rick got the idea to work with me and develop Mad Fox together for a stake in the business, he put up startup capital and he has been instrumental in helping me to deal with the startup business issues while I can concentrate on the restaurant and brewing concepts. Rick has started numerous businesses over the years and I have helped in the opening or restarting of 7 brewpubs in the area so our skill sets work well together.

Holz: According to the website, Mad Fox is slated to open November 2009, is that scheduled opening date still a reality?

Bill: Well, let’s say November 2009 is probably too soon but we had to pick a target date and last fall that seemed reasonable. I would say now that the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010 would be more like it.

Holz: A lot of my readers aren’t familiar with Bill Madden, would you mind giving us a run down of your brewing career to date?

Bill: My brewing career started with home brewing in San Francisco and a friend of mine liked my beer so much he suggested I look into going to the University of California at Davis, Master brewers Program. I graduated in 1995 from UC Davis and was hired by Capitol City Brewing Company before I graduated to become a part of their expansion team. Cap City was just the one location then at 11th and H in the District of Columbia and I was to be the brewer at Tyson’s Corner, which never happened. I opened the Cap City on Capitol Hill then designed the brewery for Shirlington, Bethesda and Baltimore. At various times I ran all those breweries and found myself the Executive Brewer for all CCBC locations. I based myself out of the Shirlington location which was the best brewery design of all the Cap City locations (if I do say so myself!). I also founded the Cap City Oktoberfest over ten years ago which is still running strong each fall season. I left CCBC after nine years to accept sweat equity in a small brewpub called Founders’ Restaurant and Brewing Company in Alexandria, Virginia. I lasted there for a year and left to pursue other interests. I was tapped by my current owner, Anthony Cavallo to restart the brewery of the former Thoroughbreds Brewing Company in Leesburg, Virginia now known as Vintage 50 Restaurant and Brew Lounge where I currently brew and helped found the NOVAbrewfest that will be happening next weekend at Moraven Park in Leesburg, June 27th and 28th.

Holz: You currently brew for Vintage 50 in Leesburg; once Mad Fox opens do you still plan to brew for Vintage 50?

Bill: I will not be the day to day brewer at Vintage 50 once Mad Fox is in construction phase but V-50 hired Dean Lake who lives in Leesburg and has brewed at many breweries in the area including Old Dominion (RIP, very sad), Thoroughbreds (RIP but now V-50!), Rockbottom Ballston and Sweetwater Tavern Sterling. I will stay on at V-50 as an Executive Brewer and will check in periodically. There are some mutually beneficial business relations that will be maintained between V-50 and Mad Fox Brewing Company.

Holz: My site is dedicated to all things beer, one of which is my home brewing hobby, did you start out as a home brewer or did you jump straight into the big leagues?

Bill: I started as a home brewer and still maintain ties to the homebrew community since I am a member of the local home brew club BURP (Brewers United for Real Potables). My lovely wife, Beth, is the Editor of BURP’s monthly newsletter as well.

Holz: Are there any local brewpubs or beer bars that have inspired your Mad Fox brewpub concept?

Bill: No, really, the concept of Mad Fox Brewing Company is different from what is available in the DC metro area. We will be brewing our own beer and the restaurant will have a European Pub feel to it with a wooden bar and wood accents to soften the feel and atmosphere. The food will be locally sourced within reason and the focus will be pizzas, panini’s, salads and seasonally changing entrée offerings that the chef will have a major focus on to showcase his or her talents. There are great pizza places in this town and there are great beer places but no one to date has put the two together. I have seen this more on the West Coast than around the Mid Atlantic region.

Holz: By all accounts starting up a brewpub is an expensive process. To date, has raising capital been tough?

Bill: Raising capital started amazingly well in the spring of 2008 and then dried up in the fall with all the excitement we had on Wall Street. We put Mad Fox in hibernation until this spring when we were approached by the Landlord of the Spectrum property in Falls Church at 444 West Broad Street. The original tenant of the property had faltered financially and we had looked at this very spot the previous summer but were excluded by that very tenant for a competing menu item, pizza. Well, when the terms of the Letter of Intent were presented to Rick and me we realized that a bad economy presents some very good opportunities. Commercial real estate prices are way down, construction costs are down, stainless steel (brewery parts) are down and most contractors, architects and a host of others are competitive for your business. We presented the economic scenario and having a location changed our perception from an investor’s perspective and we are almost there on the first round of investment to start developing the location for Mad Fox.

Holz: Running a brewpub is about a lot more than just brewing great beer, unfortunately, are you also the brain behind the restaurant aspect of Mad Fox or are you working with a partner(s)?

Bill: I have a number of consultants from investors who are successful local restaurateurs to my current employer at Vintage 50, Anthony Cavallo, who is a consultant and has many years of restaurant experience running the former Blackies’ and Lulus’ restaurants. We will hire a General Manager and Chef which I have already had some very competent folks enquire about. I will oversee all operations but will focus on what I do best for Mad Fox and that is making beer.

Holz: The Mad Fox website details your intended beer offerings, 7-10 year-round offerings and a rotating selection with 20+ seasonals sounds pretty awesome, what size brewery are you working with and how often do you plan to brew in order to keep up with the aggressive selection of beers?

Bill: My plan for the beer at Mad Fox is to offer a lot of what I am known for and then add some new creations given that we plan for a large brewing system to support some limited off site sales. I will have my usual four core beers, Kolsch, malty middle beer (ESB, Amber etc.), hoppy middle beer ( IPA, APA etc.), dark offering ( Porter, Oatmeal Stout etc.), an ever changing Belgian style seasonal, Weizen year round, then all the rest will be seasonal along with my regulars like Wee Heavy and Stealth Beer like Molotov Hoptail etc. One thing I am excited to get into will be sour beers and other funk brews that I have been adverse to do given the tight quarters I have been in the last two breweries I have had to work in. Maybe some barrel aged fun is in the works as well. The brewing system will be determined by what we can find in the used market but I have a design in mind. I would like a 15 barrel system or one slightly larger with a fermentation capacity of at least 150 barrels to have a potential annual output of over 3000 barrels. The configuration will be similar to my old baby at Cap City in Shirlington.

Holz: Of the beers listed on your site, the Devils Due and Head Knocker look the most intriguing to me, what’s your favorite beer on the list and why?

Bill: The Devils Due is a Belgian style Strong Golden Ale, think Duvel, and it comes crashing in around 9% abv which has done some damage to our V-50 patrons. The Head Knocker was inspired by a trip to the UK and a sampling of Head Cracker from Woodfordes. It is an English style Golden Barley wine and it is divine on cask. My favorite beer on the list is a question I get all the time and it is hard to pick one child over another. I am proud to have an assortment of beers on tap that covers many bases for patrons coming to V-50 or any place I have worked and each beer is designed to please folks on many levels. To pick one I cannot since each beer I brew I put much effort in designing it to please. I can tell you one beer I brew each year that the patrons love but I have a hard time drinking a full pint of and that is Punkinator, my fall spiced pumpkin beer. I actually go through the trouble of picking the pumpkins at a local farm, Homestead Farms, who carry a heirloom varietal pumpkin called Cinderella. I core and roast the pumpkins and add 100 pounds to the mash. All that work and it is not my fave.

Holz: Which beer style do you enjoy brewing/drinking the most? The least?

Bill: I enjoy brewing all beers but some are more a labor of love like the Wee Heavy which is boiled for six hours to concentrate the wort and intensify the flavors. I enjoy most beers but am not a fan of many spiced beers like Punkinator mentioned above.



A big thanks to Bill for setting aside some time to answer my questions. I can't wait for Mad Fox to open. As mentioned by Bill, a reminder, the NOVA brewfest is this coming weekend at Moraven Park in Leesburg.

Stay Mad Like a Fox,

HolzBrew

Got Wood?

Well I decided to crack open one of the Old Woodie Ales that I bottled about 10 days ago and I've got wood ... serious oak flavor that is.

Look: Pours up an amber with major orange highlights. This beer has got junk in the trunk, lots of yeast settling down to the bottom of the glass. Fairly hazy, similar to a Hefe.

Smell: The brett really takes over the smell, major sweaty-horsey aroma. A perfumy oak characteristic manages to slip in there as well.

Drink: Brett and sour funk upfront, no doubt. Earthy with lots of Oak flavor. Maltiness blends in with da funk through the middle. Hops bitterness and some acidity on the back end.

Actually, I am fairly content with my first foray into the world of wild yeasts. Next time, maybe back off the wood some and go with some American hops to add a little grapefruit to complement the funk and sourness.

Make sure to remind me and I'll bring some by next time I'm in your neighborhood, you won't find anything like this at your grocery store, that's for sure.

Stay Woody,

HolzBrew