A couple weeks ago I was doomscrolling through Twitter when I saw something that made me do a double take replete with record scratch sound and all: Brennan's was selling some brews from Jack's Abby, the lager mill out in suburban Boston.
I've wanted to try their beers ever since I first became aware of them. They brew lagers and only lagers so natürlich I was intrigued by these patient young upstarts. Although they eschew ales, the folks there are mindful of trends and so they have pale lagers made with the latest, fruitiest tasting hops as well as Baltic porters that have spent time aging in spirit barrels after being adulterated with pastry flavors. Such beers don't hold much interest for me but I certainly appreciate that they brew more than fizzy yellow stuff with Noble hops in it. More to my taste are Rauchbiers and unfiltered brews as well as highly non-Reinheitsgebot complaint ones such as a lemongrass lager, that aren't part of any hip trend.
On a recent weekend I made a trek out to Brennan's and found that they carried 4 of Jack's "Core" beers which are beers that they brew year-round, or mostly so, anyway. On offer were: House Lager (a Landbier), Post Shift (Pilsner), Blood Orange Wheat (Radler), and Hoponius Union (Hoppy Lager). When I saw that the Radler was 4% A.B.V., I decided to pass on it as I figured it was a flavored beer rather than a mix of beer and soda. Stiegl's Grapefruit Radler remains the gold standard for me.
I wasn't in the mood for a pils and thought that Landbier sounded like a very tasty option plus we don't have very many of them in these parts. I opened the cooler door and reached for a 4-pack of it when I made an audible worthy of Aaron Rodgers himself. Some kind of madness suddenly came over me and my arm moved to the left where my hands grabbed the Hoponius Union.
My post hoc rationalization was that stepping out of my comfort zone is a good thing. Embracing new flavors broadens the palate and builds character. And so on.
The can said "HOPPY LAGER" in bold, friendly, green letters. Brooklyn Lager is billed as a hoppy lager. I like Brooklyn Lager. So no problem, right? It was when I got home and turned a can around to read the back of the label that I understood what I had gotten myself into. There was ad copy to the effect of the beer being like a West Coast IPA but without the A.
At first I was horrified because of my indifference to, bordering on disdain for, American IPAs. Owing to this, I didn't know what West Coast IPAs were supposed to taste like any longer. However, I'd been enjoying Sierra Nevada Pale Ale lately and figured it would be like that, more or less.
Hoponius Union was a lovely gold color with a faint haziness to it which seemed to clear up after the beer warmed a bit. A goodly sized crown of loose, white foam lasted an average amount of time. There was a fair number of bubbles loose inside. The aroma was mainly fruity in nature with a mix of something tropical like a mango or passion fruit and a mélange of citrus scents redolent of grapefruit and orange. I also caught something floral in there too.
Taking a sip, I found that the beer had a medium-light body cut by a good, firm fizziness. Those fruity smells were here in the taste as was the floral bit. Something piney lurked below the surface while a faint malty/bread taste was beneath that. The floral and fruity elements faded on the finish allowing that piney/resiny taste come through. The bitterness was substantial, but not off-putting, and the finish rather dry.
Although Hoponius Union comes in 16 oz. cans, I found that 8 oz. was enough for me and I believe this was for 3 reasons. First, there is too little malt flavor. It's probably par for the course for an IPL these days, but both Brooklyn Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale both have fine malt flavors and I guess I simply hoped there'd be more here. The last time I drank an India Pale Lager was back in 2016 and I could taste the malt. Old dog meet new tricks. Second was the Hawaiian Punch Effect where big fruity hop flavors give the illusion of the beer being sweet - and cloyingly so - even though it's not particularly sweet at all. Lastly, my tongue simply finds the fruity/floral & pine/resiny combination here to be just overly disharmonious. It's like they're two great taste that just don't taste great together. I am unsure if it is that mixture in and of itself or if perhaps it was the strength of the flavors here that caused such gustatory discord.
I lean towards the latter as I find the pine/fruit combination found in Sierra Nevada's classic to be quite tasty. I've had pilsners flavored with new fruity tasting hops but they were applied judiciously, giving those beers fruity accents. Here those flavors are about as subtle as Brian Blessed.
I am certainly not going to pour my remaining cans down the drain but I will split each with my Frau or perhaps use some to cook those habenero & carrot sausages she just purchased.
Next time I am sticking with my gut instinct and going with the Landbier. Or the pils. Or maybe both.
Junk food pairing: Try something spicy to go with your Hoponius Union like Paqui's Haunted Ghost Pepper Tortilla Chips.
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