In honour of American Independence Day and the sad fact I wasn’t able to join the raid on the White Horse American Beer Festival I had to pull the trigger on this matchup that I’ve been waiting patiently for.
In the red corner it’s the Mikeller Stateside IPA and in the blue corner is the Victory Hop Wallop. It might not be a fair fight, we’ll see but the Victory is a current fav of readily (as such) available American IPAs.
Mikeller Stateside IPA
They say:
A love of American microbrews is the inspiration behind this IPA, brewed with generous amounts of aromatic, American hops, which provide the significant freshness and bitterness with lots of citrus notes. The taste sensations are nicely balanced by the sweetness from the caramel malt.
Ingredients :
Water, malt (pilsner, munich and caramunich), flaked oats, hops (chinook, cascade and amarillo) and ale yeast.
Victory Hop Wallop
They say:
We celebrate the pioneering spirit of old Horace ‘Hop’ Wallop and those who dare mighty adventurous things in this vivid, robust ale. As our annual homage to the hop harvest, expect loads of aromatic splendor and bitter beauty.
COMPOSITION
Malts: Imported German malts
Hops: American whole flowers
Alcohol by volume: 8.5%
Tasting Notes
Mikeller Stateside IPA
No head, quite a dark amber colour. Grassy, fresh nose. Great mouthful and a lovely, moreish astringent, citrus fruit taste.
Victory Hop Wallop
No head, golden colour. Dare I say a soft, resinous nose. Bubbly mouthful. The taste, isn’t as hoppy as I remember but wonderful
The Decision
It was a close one, very close but the nod had to be given to the Danish hommage to American craft hoppy Pales Ales.
Fri, Jul 10, 2009
Beer Ranking