709. Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. – Hopfen Bavarian-Style IPA

Posted By kkozlen on Jul 30, 2014 | 0 comments

It’s a nice evening, so I thought I’d grab a beer and chill out on the deck a bit. I’m not sure how long I’ve had this beer, but I believe I picked it up in St. Louis as part of a mixed pack of beers from Urban Chestnut. The bottle says, “Hopfen is a beer we describe as a ‘Bavarian-Style IPA.’ Brewed and dry-hopped with a variety of Hallertau ‘hopfen,’ instead of the usual and more citric hop varieties of most American IPAs, gives this beer a decidedly German twist.”

Location: Poured into a large Sam Adams Perfect Pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 6.1% ABV, 45 IBUs, 14.7 Plato OG, ~200 Calories

Ingredients: Malts: European Pilsner, European Munich, European Carahell; Hops: Hallertau Mittelfrueh, Hallertau Tradition, Hallertau Merkur.

Appearance & Aroma: It’s golden in color with slight amber hues, and it’s very clear (although I left the yeast bed at the bottom of the bottle). It has a ton of carbonation (no doubt helped by the etched bottom of the glass) leaving a big, fluffy, white head on it. The aroma is an earthy, slightly grassy and spicy hop smell.

Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouth feel is smooth and slightly creamy from the big head. The flavor up front is a slightly grainy, sweet maltiness, along with some sweet, but earthy hop flavors. The hop flavor sweetness turns bitter in the middle, along with some earthy and slightly spicey hop flavors and bitterness. The finish is the same, but slightly more intense with the malt noticeable in the background. The earthy hop flavors last for a minute or two in the aftertaste.

Food Pairing: This beer has a fair amount of earthy hop tones, and therefore, I think it would make a good pairing with beef – either a burger or a steak.

Overall Impression: It’s good to find a beer that tries to go in a little bit of a different direction – a hoppy beer without the citrusy blast. I thought there was a good balance of sweet maltiness, hop flavors, and bitterness. It reminded me a bit of Sam Adams Latitude 48 Deconstructed with Hallertau. Overall, I thought this was a good beer for a cool evening like this.

My Rating: