TWO BROTHERS’ HEAVY-HANDED IPA’s LIGHT TOUCH

Sometime I wish I was a heavy drinker. I suffer from a crisis of abundance, a beer-tinged version of “alfuenza”, you might say. I currently have sitting in my fridge and garage a dozen west coast beers I bought around my town; 5 incredible east coast beers + 1 special Belgian received in a trade; and now the 10 beers I ordered from ARCHER LIQUORS in the Midwest. It’s time to get to work, but knowing me, the last of these three batches will be polished off around the end of summer. O, to be an alcoholic!

Let me first talk about my ARCHER LIQUORS order. This Chicago-based mailorder outfit came highly recommended by THE DRUNKEN POLACK, and folks who read his blog know that he don’t lie. I picked out ten whoppers from the likes of DARK HORSE, THREE FLOYDS, GREAT LAKES and other heavyweights – including three from TWO BROTHERS BREWING in Warrenville, IL. I’ve enjoyed the two of their beers that I’ve had immensely, and hey, their HOP JUICE is clocking in at #73 on the Hedonist Beer Jive 75. So Archer Liquors basically did everything they said they would and then some – packed the beer well, shipped it quickly, and communicated status without fail. Their selection is fabulous, and for those of us with no access to the Midwest and east coast superstar brewers they’re carrying, their service is a proverbial godsend.

TWO BROTHERS HEAVY-HANDED IPA is what I pulled out of their box first. Only 27 beers to go after this one, provided I buy nothing else! This highly-regarded IPA is highly regarded for a reason, as I found out. It’s like a very ripe, exceptionally juicy grapefruit. Not too piney, and not too overly hopped. It’s not advertised as a “double” and it doesn’t taste like one either. It’s a 6.7% ABV beer, and it goes down easy. There’s a bit of sweetness on the tongue that you only see in a subset of the IPAs out there. Great effort, and another winner from this crew. 7.5/10.