Get Crooked

Friday afternoon and the weekend is here.  I finished up work today with a "Friday Try Day" beer sampling and decided to continue when I got home.  My birthday is on Sunday and I plan to treat myself to new beers all weekend long.  And that means blog postings every day as well!

Kicking off the tasting weekend is Double Crooked Tree by Dark Horse Brewing Co of Marshall, MI.  The tasting at work was pretty tame and full of "already tried" so I decided to step it up with a 13.6% ABV, 98 IBU double IPA.  Back in March I blogged about Dreadnaught and the DIPA style.  Consider this an extension of that exploration of the style.  After all, trying many different brands within a style is the only way to truly understand the breadth and boundaries of the style.  I've tried all of the BJCP "classic" examples but that hardly covers all of the options for DIPA or Imperial IPA.

Double Crooked Tree is billed as the same recipe as DHB's Crooked Tree but with all of the ingredients except water doubled.  The single version of Crooked Tree was inspired by a West Coast IPA but has been produced with Michigan style.  (Not sure exactly what that means since I have not tried the single version.  If I had to guess, I would say it is less aggressive.)  Even more intriguing is the sentence "Because of our almost patented 'Intense Transfer Methods' our Crooked Tree has won several medals in the India Pale Ale category."  Enough words...time to taste!

• Appearance: Cloudy with no transparency at all, little to no head, auburn color, over time some of the haze clears as the beer warms
• Aroma: Hops are immediately noticeable with grapefruit and pine notes, malt sweetness and caramel also, alcohol detectable but not overpowering
• Taste: Low carbonation, Bitterness up front but very balanced without any harshness, Soft hit up front that fades fairly quickly, some sweetness but not as much as I would have thought, dry throughout, Alcohol level is only apparent through some warming sensations

Overall, I would say this is a pretty good beer.  Its very drinkable which could be very dangerous considering the alcohol level.  I would prefer to see a more aggressive approach when brewing a DIPA but I think many will enjoy this beer.  Be sure to drink it in the 40-50 deg F range to get a full appreciation of the flavors.  Any colder and you will probably be disappointed. 

A good start to a weekend of tasting and looking forward to the next!