So there I was minding my own business and checking out my emails before supper on a Wednesday evening and I happened to come across an email flyer from Chappys in Dayton. They wanted me -and plenty of others, I’m sure- to go along that evening to help raise funds for Breast Cancer, regrettably I couldn’t (as it’s a good couple of thousand miles away!)
Chappys also tell me that they’re about to tap some Founders “Backwood Bastard” – which is an entertaining little drop, being a scotch ale at 10.2%…which I think you’ll agree is excellent value for money…
Anyway…reading about crackers-strength American beers made me want to drink something like that, and then I remembered that I had a bottle of Victory Hop Devil that I brought back with me from my recent trip over the water.
I had the draught version when I was over there and liked it a lot: https://yeastismybitch.com/2013/10/07/victory-hop-devil/
The bottled version of Hop Devil arrived into a glass bearing that familiar IPA orange hue. The head was sticky, lacey and long-lasting. As per the draught version, there wasn’t a gigantic aroma, but it did have lovely resinous pine and some sticky sweet malt.
The taste was pleasantly bitter, and teamed up nicely with the hop notes; making for a very joined up experience. The after-taste was a nice enduring resiny bitterness that pervaded for a quite a while.
In summary: very mellow, very mild for an IPA. But very nice. I could drink a lot of it.
Well worth seeking out.