Hop Stoopid: Redux

After a long week at work I felt like it was time to get a meal rivaling that of a pregnant woman's cravings:  an IPA, some spicy tuna rolls and a bag of unreasonably expensive cheesy popcorn.  In doing so I revisited an oldie but a goodie, the Hop Stoopid by Lagunitas.


Now I have tried half a dozen Lagunitas brews in my day, and every time I go back to their well I am sadly to say somewhat disappointed at what I get.  Sure, Brown Shugga was a decent beer a year ago, but I had their Cappucino Stout a few weeks back and it was nothing to write home about at all, and their replacement for not being able to brew Brown Shugga this year was a lousy gimmick.  (I didn't buy it.)  Yet when it comes to Hop Stoopid, the beer never, ever, lets me down.  


It pours a beautiful golden hue with a solid frothy head that recedes back to lacey perfection - it smells like a bouquet of flowers, and it tastes sweet like honey with the floral intensity of what just has to be a blend of Simcoe and Cascade.  I've written all about this before, but ladies and gentlemen, this beer, as current, beats Pliny.  Pardon me as I wax hipster here, but something happened over the past few years where Pliny does not hit the mark like it has in the past.  Perhaps it's the old pessimist anthem of great expectations leading to great disappointment, but the beer has simply not brought it like it did the first time I tried it in the now defunct Vin De Pays.  Maybe it's having to meet greater demand or what, but it's not the beer above peer like it used to.  (Dang - beer above peer - i may have found my new award name for Beer of the Year.)


Brewers out there, here's what I want to taste when I crack a DIPA.  NOT MALT.  I want hops.  I want alcoholic fizzy hop water.  I want the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted in hops in my mouth.  Here's a classic IPA teaser of one my buddy sent me today (my real-time comments in brackets):  "Unlike most IPAs brewed on the West Coast - our IPA not only has a ton of hops (100 IBUs) {okay, good, go on} but is brewed with a strong malt backbone to help balance out the bitterness.  {AGH!}"  It really doesn't help that they have a bunch of Laguna Beach wannabes in brew-suits on the front page of their website.  (Yes, I'm judging this website - what of it?)  Too many imperial IPAs have I indulged in only to be assaulted by some weird malt flavor that totally ruins the beer because they got away from what a good IPA should focus on.  THE HOPS.  The HOPS are what made those ancient barrels of beer that made their way to India from England so delicious - not English two-row, not some weird specialty malt - HOPS.


The thing that is amazing about Hop Stoopid is its ability to impart some fantastic sweetness that does not overpower the hops but blends with it like a cappella latin yazz. It's just GOOD.  I think the last time I reviewed this beer was over 2 years ago and it's just as good if not better.  Consistent, delicious, amazing.  It's what you want in a beer.