Wow, what an evening we had in Hartford, CT while taste testing 9 quality Double IPA’s.
The stage was set for a fantastic evening as we had a lot of time to go through and savor some delicious offerings from some top ranking breweries like Green Flash, SixPoint, 21st Amendment, Dogfish Head and more. The only thing that would have made this better would have been drinking them fresh out of the keg!
We had an extremely difficult time trying to rank the nine beers in this competition, but surprisingly enough are rankings were quite similar even though the tasting process was completely blind….well, except for one controversial beer.
Drinking 9 double IPA’s is no easy task so we came prepared with lots of snacks to cleanse our palettes after each brew. Here is a list of the 9 suspects in no particular order. There is one beer here that made the top three on all three of our lists. Can you guess which one?
Check out our 1 hour after the Smackdown video to hear some more thoughts on these fantastic beers!
Max and Andrew end up in Fort Wayne, Indiana looking for a brewery that could impress. After some investigation we ended up at http://www.gcfb.net (Granite City Food & Brewery). Holy cow did we show up on the very best night of the week for this brewery!!! On Wednesday night’s they have all of their beers on special, 20 oz. beers for $2 bucks. Are you kidding you me? We were drinking 20 ounce Double IPAs for $2 a pop! So you NOW KNOW… if you ever end up near Fort Wayne on a Wednesday this is where you go! Watch the review to see how we rated this Batch 1000 Double IPA.
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I recently learned through an internet news story about the World’s Strongest Beer Armageddon by Brewmeister in Aberdeen Scotland.
World’s Strongest Beer
I knew we had to get one for Craft Beer Man to review so I ordered one off their website (then it was £40.00/bottle now it’s £60.00/bottle) and a couple weeks later it arrived! To give you an idea of how impressed we were with this beer we just ordered 2 more bottles to share with our craft beer loving friends. Total cost today with shipping to US is about $116/bottle. Here is the review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX884qPXQ-0&feature=player_embedded
We had a hard time believing the 65% ABV rating on this beer when we first tasted it, but we did feel the affects of this powerful beer after drinking it. I shared the second bottle with Brewmaster Sean Tobin & Brewer Miles Anfinson from Lewis & Clark Brewing Company to get their professional opinions. 
They were both impressed with the beers ability to hide alcohol (Sean mentioned he thought it could pass for a 12 or 14% abv beer by taste) and they both commented on feeling the affects of this powerful beer shortly after consuming.
We then decided to see if the beer would maintain a flame when lit, so we poured a little into the cap and sure enough we had a fire!
They use a special process called freeze distillation described in this ABC news story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08oc7gLJw8&feature=player_embedded
Max, Andrew and I had a fantastic afternoon touring SweetWater Brewery. Freddy and his entire work staff were absolutely amazing hosts and gave us the royal treatment while we were there.
SweetWater is growing by leaps and bounds due to the quality of their beers. Unfortunately, we lost our beer review of that day, but still have some snippets of the tour that Freddy took us on and wanted to share it with you guys. In case you were wondering about the review, we reviewed their LowRYEder IPA and we all agreed it was one of the best rye IPA’s we have had.
However, their entire beer lineup is worthy and a few of our favorites were the 420 Extra Pale Ale and Exodus Porter.
If you are at a bar and see any of SweetWater’s offerings, order one. You will thank me later. Until then, enjoy the tour.
Guest craft beer reviewers, Derek & Nicky… taste the robust HOPPINESS upfront in this India Pale Ale brewed by Green Flash down in San Diego County. It is always challenging to film a beer review on the water, but the boys do a great job on a boat Pillar Pt. harbor. Wait till you see the mug rating this puppy gets…
CraftBeerMan.com bringing you great video reviews of craft beers, bars, and breweries from all over the world. Find and LIKE us on facebook at http://facebook.com/craftbeerman Follow us on Twitter: @thecraftbeerman
Max & Steve do a follow-up review to the Hopslam Imperial IPA by Bell’s Brewery. Max shares his thoughts on this beautiful beer after tasting Pliny the Younger and compares the two.
Watch the video review of this great beer
CraftBeerMan.com bringing you great video reviews of craft beers, bars, and breweries from all over the world. Find and LIKE us on facebook at http://facebook.com/craftbeerman
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Max & Andrew get to drink one of their favorite East Coast IPAs in a part of the USA you wouldn’t expect. CraftBeerMan decides to give this IPA a Mug Rating for the way this puppy tastes on Tap and also how it tastes out of the bottle. Wait till you see what kind of rating this hoppy brew gets…
CraftBeerMan.com bringing you great video reviews of craft beers, bars, and breweries from all over the world. Find and LIKE us on facebook at http://facebook.com/craftbeerman
Follow us on Twitter: @thecraftbeerman
