ipa off

at beernesday last week i decided to begin my evening with a pint of the howe sound gathering storm
it seemed appropriate since i'd had the keg at the alibi, the cask at the railway...
why not the keg at st. augustine's?
and i would have had the cask again at winterfest, but it was acting up by the time i got around to it
darned dry hops getting in the spout!
i do like this brew and suggest that if you get a chance to try it before its all gone that you do so!

after that, i was at a loss of what to try next
then i saw that there were 8 ipas on the menu
there are 4 glasses in a taster
by this point i was still able to do good math and figured out that if i had two samplers
i could fit all the ipas into a head to head ipa off!
to be fair, i went with the first four on the menu
then the second four on the menu
saving a sip or two from the winner of round 1 to go against the winner of round 2
however, that's where the science stopped and the subjectivity fully took over!

round one:
lost coast indica ipa
swans extra ipa
hopworks ipa
russell ip'eh

round two:
tree hop head ipa
central city red racer ipa
driftwood fat tug ipa
storm hurricane ipa

the indica is nicely balanced but still hoppy enough for me to love
next to the resinous and hoptasticness of the swans and hopworks though it faded a little away
and the poor russell was nowhere to be found
boy oh boy, i do love me the resinous hops, and lots of them
winner of round one, the hopworks!

the hop head is hoppy and yes, full-bodied
however, not the hop star that the central city is
how can anything go up against the red racer and come out ahead on hoppiness?
the fat tug came out a little sorry next to the red racer
and the further i got into it the more the melon notes came out for me
unfortunately that is not a good thing in my book
the storm is a lovely brew, but again, next to the uber-hoppiness of some of the others it tasted more like a pilsner
don't get me wrong, i love a pilsner, but this was an ipa off
winner of round two, the red racer!

then i put the red racer and hopworks against each other
and i think my poor taste buds were completely fried by that point
i just couldn't find a winner out of the two
i declare a tie!

now, nothing said above should in any way be considered as me saying i don't like any of the ipas tasted
i like them all
and if i'm just drinking one of them in seclusion from the others am always very, very happy with them
i just like to put them head to head sometimes and see where they all land!
subjectivity at its best!