Stoudts Brewing Co.: Double IPA

The double IPA is a dangerous beast. IPAs are already quite bold tasting. Try to double down on anything and you risk pushing the beer over the edge. A lot of double IPAs are just unadulterated hop monsters. Stoudt's take is a little different.

This unimaginatively titled brew does not seem to have any more hops

than a "regular" IPA. Instead, presumably in an effort to increase the ABV, Stoudts has put a lot more malt into this beer. The taste has an almost honey-like sweetness to it at first, and while you'd expect the hops to come in and wipe that out, the sweetness turns out to be quite persistent. Still, the flavors are overall pretty well balanced--the sweetness, while persistent, is not overdone and there are plenty of hops to give your tastebuds something else to focus on. It's sort of like a scaled-back version of Dogfish Head's 180 minute IPA.

This beer is a little bit too sugary for my tastes. It's not a "sweet" beer by any means, but I would definitely have preferred a little bit drier flavor. Definitely an interesting take on the genre, and probably a boon for those that really dig malted-up IPAs.

Stoudts Fat Dog: Imperial Oatmeal Stout

Only a couple hours left in the week, so I better make good on my promise to review a new beer from a new brewery every week for the last five weeks of class. Week 3: Stoudts Fat Dog Oatmeal Stout. Stoudts is a Pennsylvania brewery, and a well-known one at that, so I've been a bit remiss ignoring them up to this point. I figured I'd give them a fair shake on their first review by choosing a variety of beer that I generally enjoy.

This ale is quite unique. Lots of different flavors going on. It's got a peculiar sweetness to it that is a bit like cola or licorice, though there's also some smoky coffee notes and a dry finish that hints of a red wine. Mouthfeel is about par for the course so far as stouts go--it's fairly thick but not milk-stout thick. It finishes with a dry hoppiness that manages to take the edge off the sweetness, though in the end it's still a little sweeter than I'd like.

Nevertheless I have to give credit to Stoudts for packing so many different flavors into a single brew and making them all work together pretty well. For an imperial, this one goes down pretty smooth too--there's just a hint of the alcohol in the aftertaste. All in all, a respectable stout, but certainly not on the order of Barney Flats or Bell's Double Cream.