It’s been a somewhat relaxing weekend. We didn’t have anything going on for the first time in a while – no baseball games, no travel, etc. The kids got their school schedules and we did a little bit of back to school shopping. I’ve also spent the afternoon paying bills and generally getting caught up from our trip to Oregon last week. I reached in the beer fridge this afternoon and grabbed this IPA my friend Joe brought me the last time we met up. He lives in Atlanta and always brings me beers from the area. This one looked really interesting, with some tart and spicy flavors.
Location: Poured into a TEKU pint glass from the bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL.
Numbers: 6.7% ABV, 74 IBUs, 8L SRM, ~210 Calories
Appearance & Aroma: It’s deep, almost burnt, orange in color and somewhat hazy from the sediment that was in the bottom of the bottle. The head was thin, and quickly fell to a very thin ring around the edge of the glass. The aroma is a mix of bright tropical and dank earthy hoppiness.
Taste & Feel: The body is light-medium and the mouthfeel is smooth with a hint of crispness from the carbonation in it. The flavor up front is a little bit tropical and juicy with a little bit of malt caramel falvor. In the middle, it’s a mix of light caramel malty sweetness and a little bit of tropical fruit juiciness. There’s a little bit of a streak of pineapple juice sweetness, that’s very slightly tart, that leads you into the finish. The finish is mostly a tropical juiciness with a good dose of earthy hoppiness and a bit of spiciness on the backend. The tropical juice and earthy hop bitterness last briefly in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: I had this beer with tacos, and I think it was a great pairing. The tropical and earthy hop flavors added nicely to the spiced meat in the tacos, and the peppery spiciness added to the mix of taco spices.
Overall Impression: The label clearly says that it’s their Hop Dang Diggity IPA infused with pineapple and habanero. Therefore, it’s first and foremost an IPA and the pineapple and habanero add a little bit of flavor to it. I think I was expecting a little bit more bright and tropical pineapple flavor and more lingering habanero spiciness. While I’ve had the Hop Dang Diggity before, I thought these additions might add to the tropical and citrus hops in this beer. Instead, the hop flavors were a little bit more muddled. It wasn’t a bad beer, but the flavors weren’t nearly as clean and bright as I was hoping for.
My Rating: 
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