Hop Juice

[Beer-lord]

What Jeff said. I don't get any heat at all until it's very warm in the glass and then only slightly. But, you won't let this warm up, it'll be gone long before that.
While brewing today, we're going to take another sample. Like Jeff, I need to make sure it's carbed well and then will bottle gun these next weekend when I am positive they are ready. That'll be just about 2 weeks on gas. I hit 20psi for 36 hours and the rest at 10.

[BlackDuck]

All right, I couldn't wait any longer. I put one in the fridge yesterday afternoon. So two weeks in the bottle and a little more than 24 hours to get cold. The pour had a nice head on it, color was nice, cloudy, but nice. But I can't expect it to be clear with only 24 hours to chill. The aroma is divine....dank, piney, citrusy, all mixed in together. The bitterness seems very smooth and lingers even after the swallow, but it's not to harsh. Flavor is really good too, I think I'm getting some tropical fruit and citrus. And at 8.5% ABV, I'm not getting any alcohol heat at all.

Overall....I think I like this....a lot!!! It's quite balanced for such a high ABV IIPA. And I think another week of conditioning will do this justice.

Well fellas, I'm quite happy with the results. Thanks for egging me on to write the recipe after I called dibs on the Hop Juice name.

[Inkleg]

Chris, you have done extremely well on this and I bow to the recipe leader.

[Beer-lord]

I take full credit, of course, for going to Parish Brewery last year, for buying Ghost, for sharing the video of the owner mentioning "hop juice" and for having weird beer names. So, please send all your Hop Juice to me for safe keeping and intensive testing.
I don't think these will last very long what with the aroma and flavor dying fast in IPA's......we're going to have to drink early and often.

[Inkleg]

So, please send all your Hop Juice to me for safe keeping and intensive testing.

Roger that Paul, I'm just going to run it through my liver and kidneys first.

[Kealia]

[Beer-lord]

Well, the color of my version looks like it's already been thru those organs.

[Brewbirds]

So, please send all your Hop Juice to me for safe keeping and intensive testing.

Roger that Paul, I'm just going to run it through my liver and kidneys first.

That's genius Inkleg it won't be illegal to ship then.

[Beer-lord]

Blahhhh, tonite's Hop Juice from the kegerator wasn't so good. Almost acrid like the hops had sat around way too long. It wasn't any hop junk, just somewhat overly bitter but not in a good way. I guess with so many hops, you have to drink it all right away to enjoy it. I only have about a gallon left and I'll get it down even if I have to mix it with other beer.

[BlackDuck]

That surely is a bummer. Makes me wonder why? I mentioned earlier that I thought mine was a little astringent, wonder if we are picking up the same thing, just calling it something different. Looks like this recipe may need some tweaking in the future.

I had a couple neighbors over tonight. One of them picked the Hop Juice. I poured the Pliny clone for myself. After he had a couple sips of the Juice, he commented how good it was. In fact he said, "I can't understand why anyone wouldn't like this". That made me happy.

Then I had him take a sip of my Pliny clone. He said it was good, but the Hop Juice was much better. But to be fair, the Juice is much fresher. But either way, he liked the Hop Juice a lot. In fact, he took a bottle home with him.

[Inkleg]

Not at home tonight, so can't try mine. But my last taste a few days ago was DAMN good.

[Beer-lord]

I've read a few times that lots of Apollo and it's earthy flavors can do something like this. But, it's not nasty, just nothing like it was. I'll revisit tomorrow and see how it tastes.
I have 3 bottles I'm saving to do side by sides and hope those are ok. They're staying in the fridge to keep fresh.
And Jeff, I'm not sure you ever made bad beer!

[Beer-lord]

My buddies in Solvang got some Hop Juice yesterday and didn't waste any time getting it cold and into their mouths. They said they loved it. Lots of aroma and they said it might just be the hoppiest beer they've every had. They felt the flavor was a good match with the hop bite and they didn't taste anything that I'm now tasting in my kegged version which I think is already past its prime. Well, it's almost gone anyway.

[BlackDuck]

Thanks for sharing Paul....so glad they liked it!!!

[Kealia]

A buddy of mine came over yesterday and we had *hic* a few beers. Since I wanted to try a number of things we decided that one bottle of HJ would be in the rotation (so I can save the other for a head to head with Chris').

Pours beatifully copper/orange with a niceone-finger head. Looks like an IPA. I mean it looks like it's saying, "I dare you to drink me, bitch". Kind of like the arrogance Stone has for their beers. This beer doesn't back down after the posturing either. The aroma is strong and forefront and there's no doubt what's coming next - a full-bodied mouthful that will rattle your teeth.

So here's the thing with this beer for me/us: Being on the West Coast, I think we have developed a preference for the bright, floral, citrusy aromas whereas this one is more dank and piney as noted above. That's not a flaw, that's a preference. Mind you, I love Enjoy By which is described as "devastatingly dank" so maybe it's a certain combination of dank and piney that don't totally float my boat. Is this the Apollo that you guys talked about?

I didn't pick up any alcohol heat at all, and the middle of the drink is good and strong - the malt shows up to the party, for sure. The finish for me has that thing that makes it hard for me to drink a lot of this type of beer - it's resiny. Which is the only way I know how to describe it. It's not astringent like there is a flaw (I think Paul mentioned he was getting that at some point). In my mind, I attribute it to the sheer amount of hop oils (ahem, juice) in the beer. It's almost more of a 'feel' than it is a 'taste' to my palette.

As always, I'll state that I don't think the beer is flawed in terms of the recipe nor the brewing of it - just that for my tastes it might be more man than I am. Now, maybe I should have given it more than 48 hours to chill and settle and I picked up some sediment in the glass - I suppose that's possible. But I have one more bottle that will chill for a while waiting for Chris' to arrive so that should rule that out.

I'll say again how much fun this has been to be involved in tasting this beer guys.
Thanks!