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Beer Review: Winter Harvest DIPA and Windhook IPA from Väsen Brewing

Winter Harvest DIPA, Väsen Brewing (Richmond, VA)

Double IPA, 8.0% ABV, 25 IBU

Presentation: Draft pour into a stemmed glass

Appearance: Golden/bronze/orange color, medium head

Taste: Notes of bitterness at first then vanilla-like sweetness at the back-end. The sweetness was pronounced in this DIPA than any I have tasted before.

Mouthfeel: Super smooth

Overall: The vanilla/dried fruit sweetness was a bit much for my liking but I could drink every now and again.

Score: 3.8

Windhook IPA, Väsen Brewing (Richmond, VA)

IPA, 6.0% ABV, 35 IBU

Presentation: Draft pour into a stemmed glass

Appearance: Golden, straw-like, medium head

Taste: Smells of pine and a hint of citrus (lemon perhaps)

Mouthfeel: Super smooth

Overall: Prototypical West Coast IPA. Smells of pine but could not taste it. Slight lemon taste.

Score: 4.1

Defying winter's cold with a delicious tropical sour IPA

Firstly, my apologies for the delay in getting the next reviews up. I had some issues come up with our new house that required urgent attention.

This week, I'm trying a fruited sour IPA from Canon and Draw Brewing in downtown Richmond, and a blackberry cider from Back Bay's Farmhouse Brewing in Virginia Beach.

The sour IPA (Corrosive Haze) is 6.5% ABV. It pours like your typical hazy IPA, hazy yellow with a modest head. The flavor profile is quite tropical...strong pineapple and mango notes with your typical IPA bitterness at the very end. I know a lot of folks don't like their beers (particularly IPAs) overly sweet and this still stays safely out of gose territory. This was a great beer to take my mind off the impending winter chill.

  
I wasn't quite as high on the farmhouse-style blackberry cider from Back Bay Brewing (6.7% ABV). Heavily aromatic, the cider pours crisp and bubbly with a dark red/purple color as you'd expect if you crushed fresh blackberries. The favor profile is quite balanced, not leaning too far apple or too far blackberry; it is slightly dry and tart, not overly sweet like other fruited ciders I've tried. It was decent but didn't really stand out.

 

Final ratings:

Canon and Draw Corrosive Haze IPA: 4.5 pints

Back Bay Brewing Blackberry Cider: 3.5 pints

This week in brew reviews: Three Notch'd Blackberry Gose, Courthouse Creek Cider

Before I dig in to this week's reviews, I want to give a shout-out to my favorite bottle shop in the Richmond area, De Fles Winkle (aka, "The Wink"). Located next to the Food Lion off of Nuckols Road in Glen Allen (on the north side of 295), The Wink has quite an expansive variety of beers, ciders, mead, and wines, and they do a great job of rotating in new product. Everyone there is deeply knowledgeable about what they're selling and super helpful. I was just in there the other day and asked the owner if they'd be getting in other flavors of Coyote Hole Cider, and he got on the phone right away and ordered more! Now that's customer service!

Two more notes before we dig into this week's reviews. My wife Shelly will be joining this blog shortly, to bring some balance to my predilection for sweet, funky sours, ciders, and stouts/porters. She'll be contributing her enthusiasm for IPAs, which with few exceptions I don't particularly care for. Additionally, we'll be implementing a rating system ("pints" instead of stars) for each beer and cider we review, and we'll be going out to breweries and sharing pics/video of the experience. 

Ok, enough of that. On to the reviews!

This week features Three Notch'd Brewing's blackberry gose and two ciders from Courthouse Creek: "Gigi's Kiss" and "Easy Breezy".

Three Notch'd Blackberry Gose

• Actually tastes like real blackberries used rather than some artificial blackberry flavored syrup
• Slight tartness, not too sweet
• ABV: 5.1%

 Courthouse Creek Cider "Gigi's Kiss"

• Crisp, slight carbonation
• Slightly dry, subtle pineapple and blackberry notes in the background 
• ABV: 6.9%

Courthouse Creek Cider "Easy Breezy"

• Crisp, slight carbonation
• Dry with pronounced floral and hop notes; highly aromatic
• ABV: 7.5%

 Ratings:

 Three Notch'd Blackberry gose: 4/5 pints
Courthouse Creek "Gigi's Kiss": 4/5 pints
Courthouse Creek "Easy Breezy": 3.5/5 pints

Stay tuned for ratings and reviews of a few DIPAs from Commonwealth Brewing!