Humulus Ludicrous
Style: Double India Pale Ale
ABV: 8%
Presentation: Single 341 ml brown bottle, green wax seal
Brewery: Half Pints Brewing Co.
Country: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
KANPAI! w/ Jeff Werstiuk
I may not be overly fluent in Latin, but my taste buds know that Humulus Ludicrous indirectly translates into English as “contains a ridiculous amount of hops.” To slip into a quick lesson in botany, the Latin name for the common hop is Humulus lupulus, which has a nice ring to it all on its own. Hops are small green pinecone-like nuggets that grow on vines, and provide the balancing and bittering ingredient to the otherwise cloyingly sweet malt in the brewing of beer. Besides acting as a balancing agent they can also provide aroma and flavour, depending on the beer style and the brewermaster’s discretion.
That being said this Double India Pale Ale from Half Pints should probably be filed under “For The Adventurous” for many of you in the crowd. However for the die hard “hopheads” it’s time to step right up. This rendition of the style is a whopping 100 IBU’s (IBU stands for International Bitterness Units, a universally recognized scale used to measure how potent the alpha acids found in hops are), which is nearly double the amount found in many regular India Pale Ales. Before you start involuntarily puckering from the very thought of it, the tendency with the DIPA style is to have nearly as intense of a malt presence in order to balance out the massive hop whollap, or at the very least to keep it in check so it’s not some one-sided runaway train of bitterness. The beauty of Humulus Ludicrous-which was brewed to mark the Half Pints Brewery’s anniversary–is that it manages to pull this off while still delivering the goods promised. It’s one of the few times a beer label doesn’t lie to you or offering false promises.
For glassware the usual suspects of a mug or a pint glass will fit the bill, although if you wish to accentuate the floral and citrus aromatics awaiting you the moment you open the bottle, us an oversized red wine glass, or a Belgian chalice or tulip glass if you have one handy. Keeping those aromatics in mind let the bottle stand at least 10 minutes after you take it out of the fridge. Once poured you’ll be introduced to a beer that is cloudy deep amber in appearance, with a short tight creamy off-white head. As you gaze you will have already noticed fairly intense aromas of lemon and orange, possibly even the moment the bottle cap was pried off the bottle and you had a chance to pour it. A deeper inspection will unearth hints of sugary sweet malt, burnt toasted notes, then a parade of hops including tangerine, light lemon zest and fresh white grapefruit, with faint traces of pine and spicy earth. This all carries on in the flavour with sweet, toasted mildly bready malt that effortlessly blends with grassy, herbal, earthy, citrus rind hops, almost equally as sweet on the finish, with the hops eventually lingering on longer in the aftertaste. Deceptive enough that, while hoppy, you’d never guess there was 100 IBU’s of hops lurking in there. As intense as the flavour is the mouthfeel is not as overwhelming, being a user-friendly medium-body without much carbonation.
With such a strong hop presence Humulus Ludicrous would match well with old, sharp cheeses, matching it blow for blow in dynamic tango of flavours. Spicy dishes are the ultimate dance partner however, take your favourite personal pick from the Mexican, Thai or Cajun styles, or set it head to head with the most daring serving of Buffalo wings you can muster up. This will also slice through a pesto based pasta dish. For dessert? If one of your favourites is carrot cake like mine this DIPA will prevent the richest of cream cheese icings from overwhelming your palate. It will also harmonize with and balance out any sweets of desserts with a prominent ginger component.
The next steps in the cooler:
From This Brewery:
Burley Wine
Humulus Ludicrous
Phil’s Pils
Little Scrapper IPA
Sweet Nikki Brown
In-Style:
90 Minute IPA - Dogfish Head
Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. - He’Brew
Hardcore IPA - Brew Dog
Storm IPA - Brew Dog
Bad Hare Day - Sherbrooke
Other Hoppy Beers:
US Alive - Mikkeller
Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel
Santa’s Private Reserve - Rogue
Lagunitas Imperial Red
For The Adventurous:
Old Crustacean - Rogue
Paradox - Brew Dog
Samichlaus Bier