Game Day Beer Review: Foothill Brewing Seeing Double India Pale Ale

Photo by Andrea_44 on Flickr

Beer: Foothill Brewing Company Seeing Double India Pale Ale

ABV: 9.50% 

Presentation: Poured from a 32 oz growler from Morganellis Party Store, Columbia SC

Appearance: Classic IPA copper/orange, with a nice two finger tan head, giving away to consistent lacing on all sides.

Aroma: Floral, pine, earthy, citrus - typical IPA - and nicely apparent.

Taste: Superior.  Not the over-the-top hop bomb of many doubles but a very complex, drinkable ale.  The initial sweet maltiness combines with a pine/earthiness before giving way to the fruity hop blast at the end, with a faint alcohol overlay.

Overall: Outstanding combination of complexity and drinkability, with a very well hidden high ABV. This beer made me very very happy, and not just because of the monster ABV. I will definitely drink this again, hopefully often.  A+

Game Day Beer Review: Foothills Brewing's Hoppyum American-style India Pale Ale

(6.30% ABV) Brought down to South Florida by a visiting guest, Hoppyum is a welcome addition to these parts, where Foothills doesn't yet distribute. Enjoyed at sunset out by the pool with friends, Hoppyum was poured out of a growler. The beer is a deep golden color with only a very small head.  It smells like pine and hops, but the overall scent is pretty minimal.  I get caramel and malt on the first taste, but that's soon overwhelmed by a bitter follow through. It's not so bitter to make me want to stop drinking it, but there's nothing to take the edge off. Not my favorite: B.

Carbonated Footie

Some of farlieonfootie's newest fans, from the World Beer Fest
photo by pink_fish13	via PhotoRee

In addition to the usual football column, today's version of the blog will include several observations from a recent trip to the World Beer Fest in Columbia, South Carolina. After all, what could be better than a weekend full of footie, unless it's a weekend full of footie and beer? Now how the World Beer Fest happened to choose Columbia, South Carolina as its winter home I'll never know, but I'm guessing the event was rather optimistically named....

First off, regarding the football I saw: Liverpool looked better on Saturday than they have in many weeks, although I wouldn't be getting too carried away about the rest of the season if I were a fan of the reds (which I am decidedly not). True, Torres appears to be finally waking up from his somnambulistic state, hitting the back of the net twice yesterday, but even I could have scored the two goals he did -- and I'm not very good. For his second goal, which capped a 3-nil win over a downtrodden Wolves side, the goalkeeper wasn't even in front of the net, leaving Torres nothing to do but spank the ball home from three feet away.  And true, also, that Raul Meireles is finally showing a bit of the form expected when the Scousers bought him this summer from Porto [Ed. Note: Have any Liverpool supporters thanked Uncle Roy for signing Meireles, or is it not appropriate to show even the smallest sign of gratitude to their former boss man?].  But let's be completely honest here: that was Wolves the reds beat, a side currently sitting one spot north of the southernmost spot in the league, and Wolverhampton turned in an absolute stinker yesterday afternoon after several strong recent performances. So let's not get too hot and bothered over King Kenny's triumphant return. The team he inherited will not be relegated, but they're right where they belong: this Liverpool team is a mid-table club.