About a week ago, I promised a showdown of two beers: Two Brothers’ “Heavy Handed IPA” vs. Dogfish Head’s “60 Min. IPA.” Actually, I did the test about a week ago with the help of my roommate. But, for your benefit, I will perform the test again, right now, as I write this.
First, I should warn the reader that no one in their right, informed mind should call me a beer connoiseur, simply because my taste buds are quite dull and unpracticed. However, I guess I am undoubtedly a beer connoiseur in relation to all those hapless “Guinness is the greatest beer on Earth” sorts of people. Yes, I was among those unwashed, unbaptized infidels a few years ago. But since then, I have seen the light, and it was shining through a pint-sized glass of truly artistic beer. Guinness is bland. It is not heavy. It is not a meal. It does not have a deep, rich flavor. I suppose if you are so pathetic that Miller Lite is your normal fair, then yes, Guinness has a deep, rich flavor, and yes, it is “Brilliant.” And if worms were the only species that had ever existed on Earth, then the sudden appearance of a lemming would be brilliant as well. You get the idea. Drink better beer, you poor, poor soul.
First of all, there is a clear difference between these two in sight, smell and taste. When doing the blind test, administered by my roommate, I did not smell or taste the beers beforehand. I used my vague memories from weeks ago as my only reference point. I could tell one smelled much, much stronger than the other, which is what I didn’t pay attention to before. My first inclination was that the stronger smelling beer was the Heavy Handed, since, you know, it’s heavy handed with hops. But the great richness that entered my nose made me think that this, certainly, was the Dogfish Head. Then I tasted the beers. The relatively mild-smelling beer had the powerful, pure, but uncomplicated taste of hops, whereas the richer-smelling beer filled my mouth with an army of flavors: still with a strong hoppy taste, but not quite as strong, and not overpowering the distinctive flavors in the 60 min.
The open-eyed portion of the test confirmed what I was already beginning to understand.
Visually, the Heavy Handed is foggy, reddish, and relatively dark for an IPA. This, I suppose, is what one would expect from a beer than fetishizes the hops. It is not quite as red as a Killian’s, but it is darker, and there is more variation in the color than, say, Guinness. Without a doubt, it is attractive. If you swing that way.
On the other hand, the 60 Min. IPA is light and clear. Keep in mind that I am color blind, but it looks like it could pass for a wimpy lager on sight alone. The color is a tad darker than a budweiser, and there is no active carbonization occuring as far as I can tell. I like the color better than a Budweiser, but without a Budweiser in front of me, I can’t tell if this is a true difference in quality, or my personal biases influencing my perceptions. Shoo, stinky biases! Be gone!
Now for the odor. Strangely enough, the Heavy Handed, despite it’s heavy handedness in other aspects, has a very mild odor. For some reason, I want to say it has the faint hint of Rasberries, but there is no mention of Rasberries from the brewer. Whatever it is, it is mild, but good nonetheless.
On the contrary, the 60 Min possesses a rich odor. Ironically, I can smell more hops coming from this one than the Heavy Handed. Also, it seems to have a small variety of fruity smells that mix together nicely. Greenish Apple most stronly comes to mind, but so does watermelon, something citrusy (like the rine of a lime, maybe), and maybe rasberry.
(By the way, the method recommended by “experts”–which I use– is to first smell the beer with the nose directly over the beer, and the mouth shut. Then, open the mouth and continue to inhale through the nose. Third, and finally, breath in through the mouth.)
Finally, the taste: The Heavy Handed is true to it’s name. It delivers a powerful, hoppy taste that is relatively uncomplex. It goes down smoothly, but it leaves a mild, hoppy aftertaste that I’m perfectly alright with, although I would understand if some think it’s a bit too much. In this way, it is very consistent with it’s look, it seems, but inconsistent with it’s smell. Not that that’s a bad thing. It seems that the flavors of this beer stay trapped within the liquid, which is fine for tasting, but not so fine for smelling. But beer isn’t really about smelling, is it?
The Dogfish Head, true to it’s odor but not it’s looks, has an amazing, complex, slightly sweet but mostly rich and hoppy flavor. The relatively high alchohol content (damnit…think it’s around 5.5-6%) comes through, but certainly doesn’t overpower the flavor: quite to the contrary, it enhances the flavor (unlike some of the 10-11% beers I’ve had at Goose Island).
So, which beer is better? In my younger days, when I liked the thrill of powerful flavors, and couldn’t pick up on the more subtle flavors, I would have preferred the Heavy Handed. Only in my very earliest days of beer drinking (when I was an underage Marine and usually drank Bud Lite from a contraband keg, resulting in me low-crawling in front of the barracks, naked, with my underwear operating as a helmet, and loving it), I would have wrinkled my nose at the bitter hops. So, if you also can’t stand the flavor of hops (you poor, pathetic soul), I would avoid this. On the other hand, if you think Guiness is the greatest thing on Earth, it’s time to upgrade your taste (it’s cheaper, too!).
Now, on the other hand, I’ll leave the crown for Dogfish Head 60 Min, reigning champion of Natural Causes. But you can count on me to be ever vigilant in my search and exploration of new contenders.
Natural Causes 