I figured it would only be appropriate to make a post on this wonderful day of great food and even better beer. I didn't have the stomach to drink too much today as I went out last night, but I made an exception and grabbed a bottle of Farmhouse Hatter, one of New Holland's four variations of the Mad Hatter IPA. This brew was a steal at 5 bucks for a bomber, so I pretty much had nothing to lose. Unfortunately at the time I hadn't planned on making a post about this beer because I've been feeling especially lazy, but I eventually mustered up enough energy to sit down and churn this post out, so you get a picture of this beer accompanied by the very delicious Thanksgiving day meal my wonderful mother prepared. But enough about the food, lets get to the good stuff.
The Farmhouse Hatter is labeled as a farmhouse style IPA (aka a Belgian IPA). This beer poured a cloudy orange color with over two fingers of thick white head. The head stayed for a long time but eventually fell back into the beer and left a thin white layer on top of the beer. There was a lot of lacing on the side of the glass.
This beer had a very nice aroma to it. There were a lot of fruity esters from the Belgian yeast as well as some flowery and earthy hop scents. I thought the hops and esters combined very nicely to give this beer a pleasant scent.
On my first sip of the Farmhouse Hatter I got a lot of hoppiness. The flowery scent translated into the taste nicely, but I felt like the earthiness from the hops and the fruitiness of the beer from the Belgian yeast mixed in kind of an odd way. It definitely took some getting used to. There were also some hints of citrus as I continued to taste, which added to this beer's nice clean finish.
There was a lot of carbonation in this beer which contributed to its lighter mouth feel. I felt like it finished pretty crisply after each sip. The aftertaste was a combination of citrus and hoppiness, with a majority of the hoppy after taste having some earth like qualities. It wasn't an unpleasant earthiness, but I felt like it made for a strange combination with the fruitiness and citrus.
Overall I thought this beer was okay. As I have mentioned previously, I didn't like the earthy hop bitterness in this beer. I thought it was a strange combination with the rest of the the flavors. I definitely want to try some of the other Mad Hatter off shoots though. I thought this beer was interesting enough, it just wasn't my favorite.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving full of family, fun, food, and great craft beer. CHEERS!
No comments:
Post a Comment