The Brewing News recently completed its annual IPA and Imperial IPA competitions and a Montana beer took home top honors. After seven rounds over five weeks of single-elimination knockout competition, pitting beer against beer, Tamarack Brewing Co.’s Headwall Double IPA emerged as the best of the best. The Lakeside, Montana brewery’s Headwall won head to…
While in Helena recently, we had a chance to try a pint of Madison River Brewing Co.’s double IPA, Hop Juice, on tap. The name conjures up great images of hop cones and the flavors and bitterness that lie within. While Madison’s four flagship brews are widely available regionally in six-packs, if you’re not reasonably…
Red Lodge Ales has a nice IPA that makes for good summer drinking called Bent Nail IPA. It’s bigger brother, a double IPA, is creatively named Broken Nail. This one pours a very clear medium gold color with a rather thick white head. The aroma is sharp with citrus hops and perhaps a touch of…
Among the blogs I’ve inserted into my blog reader are a few that bring news of upcoming beer releases. I don’t pay too much attention to most of the releases because they aren’t distributed anywhere near Missoula. Some make me wish I could teleport over to wherever they may be and get in line. Many…
As the third beer in my IPA round-up, I popped open some Mojo Risin’ Double IPA from Bolder Beer Company. This is the first beer I’ve had from the folks at Boulder Beer, so I headed over to their website to check them out. It is a fun site that’s worth a look around if…
The second beer in my IPA round-up is Deschutes Brewing’s Hop Henge Experimental IPA. Deschutes has been tweaking this experimental IPA for several years now, though I haven’t had it often enough to recognize the changes. Hop Henge Experimental IPA is part of Deschutes’ Bond Street Ales Series, three “hop-forward” seasonal beers that continue to…
Thanks to a bit too much gluttony over the holiday season, I haven’t been trying (or drinking) as many beers as became my custom (preference?) in a quest to return to my normal size. I’m pleased to report that my quest was quite successful, though other goals continue to take a swipe at my craft…
There was a time not long ago when I figured I would never welcome a strong dose of hops into my beer world. But that was before I tried IPAs like Blackfoot River’s Single Malt IPA and Tamarack Brewing’s Headwall Double IPA and realized IPA doesn’t have to mean tongue splitting bitterness. Sure, hops are…