Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Daddy

I missed this member of the Jonathan Spielberg import collection first time round. I feel cheated because it is by far the best of them. I said before that Big Daddy from Speakeasy just wasn't sufficiently different from Prohibiton Ale because the amber ale just gives so damn much. Double Daddy is the beer that I hoped Big Daddy would be. It is an amazing beer and as reported by The Beer Nut, a great many hours could be happily passed sniffing the potent hop aroma stemming from the glass. Mango hit me in the face when I tasted it, really proper chewy, stringy sweet dried mango. I love mango and loved this beer just as much. I could smell citrus hops five paces away from the glass, not that I wanted to stay away from the glass for very long; it has the most wonderful golden colour with the rich foam and lacing I have come to expect from highly hopped ale. The most striking aspect to this beer is the almost total lack of any unpleasant cloying often found in other Imperial IPAs. Yet it is full bodied, and the heavy hitting 9.5% abv warms you from the throat all the way to the belly. Fabulous.

7 comments:

Barry M said...

Sounds great. I think I've only had a couple of DIPAs, Hercules being one, and they were hard work insofar as the cloying stickiness you say is absent from this. Hard work in a nice sense, but still.

The Beer Nut said...

Potent: that's the word all right.

Totally agree on the ease-of-drinking thing too.

Mark Dredge said...

Sounds awesome - I love a beer with an aroma that you can just get lost in. I haven't seen this beer in England yet - I'll keep on the look out. I love big IPAs.

The Beer Nut said...

Good luck, Mark. Though be aware that, for once, this isn't coming through a UK importer but directly from California to Ireland. If you have a sympathetic retailer, you could put them in touch with Jonathan directly via his website.

Whorst said...

Can you get Pliny The Elder in the UK? I'm going out on Friday night to a pub that's going to have all of Russian River's beers on tap. You'd probably love their range.

Thomas said...

The UK and Ireland are distinct countries and markets. Sadly the UK fairs better than Ireland. Pliny The Elder is on my wish list.

Mark Dredge said...

Ah that's a grand shame!

I haven't seen any of the Russian River beers over here yet. Where is this pub selling their range?! Pliny Elder and Younger are on my ever-expanding wish list!