The release of Firestone Walker Brewing Company’s Imperial IPA, Double Jack, is a renewed commitment to providing exemplary examples of ales, true to style. Double Jack brings all the hoppiness you expect from a California double but with a Central Coast sensibility of balance and easy finish.
The Double Jack recipe takes its inspiration of our two-time Great American Beer Festival gold medal winning Union Jack. By using more of the same ingredients that comprise Union Jack gives Double Jack the familiar flavor of its little brother with more malt flavor and alcohol. This beer rewards drinking in moderation and sharing with friends.
Double Jack will be available in a wider distribution than any other Firestone Walker beer release before. It will be available all along the West Coast in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. It will also be making its way across the country with beer coming to New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Chicago and Virginia on the first of the year. It will also be in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri and Kansas later in the year.
Double Jack is part of Firestone Walker’s Proprietor Reserve Series, which is bringing the most unique and interesting beers the brewery has to offer to the country.
Dogfish Head’s Randall, all grown up.
The average hophead would be quite satisfied to drink the 18% ABV, 120 IBU beer that is Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA. Problem is, the brewery’s founder and president, Sam Calagione, doesn’t brew beers for the average hophead — he brews “off-centered ales for off-centered people.”
Maybe that’s who he was targeting when, at an event called the “Lupulin Slam” in 2002, Sam slapped together a makeshift stainless-steel water filter, filled it to the brim with Cascade and Willamette hops, and then drowned them in 120 Minute IPA. He did so hoping to show that the East Coast could brew IPAs that rivaled those of the West Coast, and it worked; the hop-infused 120 Minute IPA was the beer of the night. Hopheads were taken aback by how fresh and resinous the beer’s hop presence was, even if it did seem like it could strip the enamel off of your teeth. Randall the Enamel Animal was born.
Now, eight years later, Dogfish Head has unveiled a new version of the Randall which features two barrels and is designed to reduce foaming. The new Randall was simultaneously used in eight different tapping events at eight cities across the country last Wednesday, and in true Dogfish Head fashion, each event featured a different beer with different ingredients packed into those filters. You’ve had Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron, but have you had it after it’s been run through coffee beans or freshly-brewed coffee? You’ve had Punkin Ale, Dogfish Head’s fall seasonal, but have you had it infused with cinnamon sticks and fresh-roasted pumpkin seeds? Olde School Barleywine with prunes that have themselves been drenched in 1997 J.W. Lees Vintage Harvest Ale?
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Mission: To provide unusual and tasty, hop infused candies for candy lovers and beer drinkers alike.
Not gonna lie. I love beer. And I love chocolate. But combining the two passions? Sounds down right insane, if you ask me. But then, I like to think that insanity and genius are bedfellows and, well, as insane as this concept may seem, it is also brilliant.
Let me introduce to to Phillip Green, the Founder and Owner Hop Candy Inc., and the man just crazy (or it it genius?) enough to put hops in chocolate. Continue Reading »
From the makers of such earth shattering products as Hello Kitty and Digimon comes another incredible idea, Beer Shampoo. Yes you heard me correctly; a shampoo with hop extracts that you shake up then spew in the shower. Sold in plastic bottles to avoid serious injury the Japanese marketer plans to sell 500,000 by March of next year. All of this so one can open a shaken bottle of beer without the drawbacks of cleaning up sticky puddles from your living room floor.
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As part of our invasion of the Yakima beer scene, Beer Mutineer JJ Bagley and Wine Mutineer Alan Kropf checked out Roy Farms, a hop farm in the bustling metropolis of Moxee, WA, just outside of Yakima, WA. Continue Reading »
Many years ago, before the Panama Canal and Next-Day Air shipping, sailors had to actually forge across the great seas. Of course, one of the most important items aboard was ale. Now imagine the most salty, sultry, and savage environment possible and picture yourself hauling this precious cargo, only to find it spoiled and undrinkable upon your arrival. Continue Reading »
