Oregon's Imperial (IPA) Empire

Hops.  Give me hops.  And then give me more.  Drown me in hops.  Well, there's probably a limit somewhere but I love my hops.  I used to be a porter and stout guy and it's probably been the 10+ years of living in the northwest that has turned me into a hop-head.  If you make an IPA and I haven't tried it yet, I'm gonna get it sooner rather than later.  My first pint of Bend Brewing Co.'s Elk Lake IPA more than a decade ago grabbed me.  What a beautiful beer.  And for years it, to me, was the perfect beer - and definitely sits somewhere in my top-five favorite ales.

Then, BBC came out with their HopHead Imperial IPA.  It was a game-changer.  Every chance I got, like many many other hop-heads in Bend, I found myself at the bar down on Brooks St. either drinking the stuff or asking when the next batch was coming out with a fist-full of regular old Elk Lake like a bunch of spoiled children.  Poor us.  And if they were pouring HopHead, it was (is) best to limit yourself to two, maybe three and only if you were having dinner there and either had a ride home or a bike.  Today I try to stop myself at one of these 9% ABV beasts.  It's better for everyone.

HopHead ruled my taste buds forever, with it's floral, citrusy, hoppy, 100 IBU ... gloriousness...

In the last few years, there's been some new dogs in town.  In particular, Ninkasi, which is actually out of Eugene.  They make, among others:  Oatis, an incredible Oatmeal Stout;  Total Domination IPA, a very good NW IPA;  and Tricerahops Double IPA, like HopHead, a 100 IBU monster.  Tricerahops blew me away when I first tried it.  I immediately thought that this was my new love.  It's very different from Hophead - not nearly the hoppy, bitter flavor that HopHead brings.  But well rounded, smooth, and not as strong tasting as the 8.8% ABV might suggest.  One of these days I have to get over to Eugene and try one of these on draught.  As far as I know the only way to enjoy this in Bend is in 22 oz. bottles.

It's been a little while since I've had a pint of HopHead at the pub, but lucky for us fans, they now sell 22s of it.  I bought one the other day, came home and popped it.  Oh yeah, it's still king.  It's just that much better than Tricerahops, and it's actually not even close.  As far as I'm concerned this is the IPA to which all others are compared.  And Elk Lake after that.  Which is to say a lot because there are some really great IPAs around.  Bridgeport's Hop Czar Imperial IPA (as well as their original IPA), Deschutes' Red Chair NWPA, Lagunitas Maximus, just to name a few.

It's good to be a hop-head! Cheers!