Tuesday, May 15, 2007

HOLD ME CLOSE, DEVIL DANCER

DEVIL DANCER, which is a 13% “Triple IPA” made by FOUNDERS BREWING of Grand Rapids, MI, is one of the rare “extreme beers” that keeps everything – the monster alcohol, the monster hops, the monster malts - in delicate balance, and comes up a winner. I’m wondering, now that we are seeing beers frequently breaking the 12% barrier, who the first marketing genius will be to introduce a “Quadruple IPA”. Maybe it’s you. I personally get less interested as the alcohol level climbs into the double digits, but this one was pretty refreshing & drinkable for such a whomper. “Dry hopped for 26 days straight, with 12 hop varieties”. Are you kidding me? Well, what they were able to get out of it is a sweet, candied smell & light candy taste; a deep roasted malt backbone (rare for such a high-hop IPA), and a generally delicious, “warming” feeling throughout. Dry, dry, dry. I like it. It’s not a life changer, but then again, it is just a beer. I gave it 7.5/10. FOUNDERS, I’m coming to find, are a pretty damn good brewery.

1 comment:

Dale Merrill said...

When Founder's is on they make some stellar brews. I wasn't really into Red's Rye but they made a dry hopped ale that was amazing (even if the label looked like it could be the cover of a Devendra Banhart record)