Tag Archives for Hop Devil

Victory: Hop Devil (Bottled)

20131016_193147

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.

http://www.victorybeer.com/beers/hopdevil/

Victory: Hop Devil

hopdevilThis was the last beer from my trip to the states…sampled in Philadelphia airport’s branch of Chickie’s and Pete’s…with a massive Philly Cheese Steak.

From draught the Hop Devil was that familiar US IPA orange with a great clarity, maybe it’s not as dry-hopped as others?  Maybe it’s keg fined?  Who knows…

The aroma was big, fragrant and inviting, probably like Diana Dors at her peak (I’m really not that old, either) if I didn’t know any better – and believe me folks, I don’t – I’d guess that Cascade featured strongly in the hopping of Hop Devil.

When tasted the malt and hops arrived, hand-in-hand, together – which was great; that means that the whole taste was available at once and not sequential like so many other beers.  Piney and spicey with just a little florality, Hop Devil tasted perfect.

Despite it’s name, Hop Devil was nowhere near as assertive in bitterness as the other IPAs I’d tasted over the week, but it was balanced and damned tasty, in fact the pint lasted less than 6 minutes.

All in all this was an excellent beer to end my week of hop mentalness.  I only managed to remember to bring back one bottle of beer from the US and by pure fluke it happened to be Hop Devil.  I’ll do the bottle version as a separate compare and contrast exercise…

http://www.victorybeer.com/beers/hopdevil/