Sadly we didn't get a hotel downtown for Gencon. Instead we were out in the boonies by the airport. The past few years we've stayed downtown and I would make a stop at a Big Red Liquors to find some Hoosier beer to bring home. Since I had no interest in schlepping beer around for 12-14 hours, I settled for a small beer outlet in a gas station near our hotel. Aside from a ton of Sun King, the selection of Indiana brews was rather small.
There were a lot of IPAs and American light lagers which I think says something about the state of craft brewing these days. I settled on Topanga, a hoppy blonde ale, by Indianapolis' Big Lug Brewing. And I did so with trepidation.
"Hoppy". My fear was this was just going to be another Hawaiian Punch beer but hope spring eternal and I gave the Big Lugs the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it would have more Noble tasting hops applied with a heavier hand than normal. Or perhaps it would have fruity hops but not that much fruity hops. Or a nice mix. Or just be drinkable.
Topanga was very hazy and deep yellow, but not the gold you see in the photo, at the wide part of the glass but was a light yellow at a narrower part. At the bottom of my snifter I saw dark flakes. Uff da. The head was a lovely loose, white layer of foam that disappeared quickly. There were some bubbles to see through the haze. Taking a sniff, my fears came true. It was really, really fruity with pineapple at the front which was backed by a general tropical fruitiness including hints of citrus.
Apprehensively I took a sip. Light body, not much fizz. Pineapple plus that general tropical fruitiness and a touch of pine. A fair bit of honeyed sweetness. My nightmare had come true.
This was not my kind of beer and it ended up going down the drain.
It was like someone had poured me a bowl of cereal that was half Froot Loops and half Trix. Then, instead of milk, they topped it off with Hawaiian Punch Pineapple Plunge. I don't doubt that someone out in the world finds this dystopian breakfast to be temptingly delicious but that person is not me.
Since I don't have much to say about this beer beyond I did not like it at all, I will note that I got together earlier this week with a friend that works at Karben4 Brewing here in Madison. He told me that K4 had merged with Young Blood Beer Co., also of Madison. That I hadn't heard this was probably due to a couple of things: 1) I don't pay strict attention to local beer news and 2) the news wasn't widely reported as beer news is in decline.
Robin Shepard's beer coverage at Isthmus ended with Covid but eventually returned, albeit sporadically. He's been more active lately - perhaps he can be now that he's done with his book. Is the Beer Baron column in the Wisconsin State Journal around? I thought it ended last year.
Beer consumption is down and craft beer isn't a hip, cool cultural phenomenon anymore, I guess.
Speaking of Robin Shepard, in his latest column he sings the praises of Delta Beer Lab's Salty Dog, a "grand" Gose. I had one recently at Atwood Music Hall and can report it's 8% and tastes like the Dead Sea. Salt licks at Farm and Fleet are less salty. I think I got high blood pressure from drinking it. I doubt there was even a nanoparticle of coriander in it. You'd need a forest of coriander to produce enough seeds to cut through the salinity.
Now, Delta's unadulterated Gose is great and I give AMH credit for carrying whatever version of Delta's Gose they happen to offer. But this...this is not for me.
Soon I will start drinking Oktoberfests (that have been sitting around since July) and a pumpkin beer or two. Before that, however, I shall be sampling the ciders and brews of England. Hopefully Manchester has some good breweries.
No comments:
Post a Comment