Beer Review: Hop Devil

My Unitarian
Jihad Name is: Brother Shotgun of Reasoned Discussion.

Get yours.

Spring is here, the weather is getting warmer, and the notion of drinking an India Pale Ale is no longer greeted with "Um, yah, maybe later, I'm still working on this Porter". To this end, I accompanied last night's Red Sox game with Victory's Hop Devil. Go, look at the brewer's own page. I'll wait.

See that glass? No? Go look. Now, that glass exposes the right amount of surface area for you to smell the hops. Lots of hops. You grab an India Pale Ale because you want something hopped, and this is well-hopped. They stopped short of making this "beer as sport", tho. You can drink this and not wonder whether you're sufficiently macho to take another swallow.

Do serve this one cold. I drank the first one at cellar temperature, and it was overwhelming. It also had the nasty impression that it was in the process of going bad; not skunked yet, but on its way. But the other five (no, not in one night) were all just fine.

This beer would go well with barbecue or any basic foods, but would overwhelm anything subtly spiced. Nothing subtle about the hops. I mentioned the hops, right? The hops are indeed bitter, but carry their own subtleties within that. Strong, but good.