Thursday, September 29, 2011

Day 271, Sep / Rumble Oak Aged IPA


Day 271 / September 28, 2011

Great Divide Brewing Co / Denver, CO

A
NG
P
G
VG
O

The lengths I go to for this blog….

So, the big final showdown between American and German Oktoberfest beers has to happen before month’s end.  And I have decided to make it a head-to-head, blind taste test.  On the day it happens, I’ll have my wife blindfold me, pour the beers, take some pictures… hey, this could get a little kinky!

I want it to be a fair competition, and right now, it’s stacked in the USA’s favor.  You see, with the 6 previous beers, I purchased almost all the German Oktoberfests I could find.  Earlier this week I stopped into my Total Wine store and bought a bottle of Beck’s Oktoberfest, because it’s all they had left.  I’ve had Beck’s Oktoberfest before, and it’s just not that good.  I needed a better German contender to go up against the highly recommended Bell’s Oktoberfest from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

So Wednesday night, I convinced the family to go to The Lost Dog Café in Arlington for dinner.  Why?  Because right across the street is Westover Market, home to over 800 types of beer!  I stopped in after dinner, perused the shelves and coolers… and found the same six Oktoberfests I’d already had.  Strike out.  Unless I find something else in the next 48 hours, Beck’s will get unfairly crushed by Bell’s.

But of course, Lost Dog is no slouch in the beer department, either.  While we were waiting for our table to be called, I checked out the selection in the coolers.  There were many good choices, but I settled on a beer called Rumble, an oak aged IPA from Great Divide Brewing Company.  Great Divide puts out consistently good beers, this style sounded interesting, and I’d never seen or heard of it before.

It was a deep amber color in the glass, and you could faintly smell the oak.  The beer is “gently aged on French and American oak”, which gives a unique, but not harsh, taste to this IPA.  It’s also well balanced, and rather tasty.  Highly recommended!

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