Here are the suspects before the night began. The real standouts for me were Nøgne Ø "India Pale Ale" and De Rank XX Bitter. Of course Pliny and Gordon were true stand outs but I have had them a few times now. To celebrate it's return to Chicagoland We added Two Hearted to the mix. We also had a some SN Pale's for standards.
The De Ranke XX Bitter was a highly hopped Belgian ale with emphasis placed on the bittering additions. The aroma was light citrus with serious Belgian yeast phenol's in play but not in abundance. The flavor was pale malt with citrus rind and a bitter blast. Bitter almost on the sour end of the scale. It was fantastic and I kept going back to this one in my mind. It was similar in style to the Houblon Chouffe but more pale and less American hops.
Nøgne Ø "India Pale Ale" was fantastic. Last week we tried the "Pale Ale" and we also had the "Dobel India Pale Ale" this week. The Nogne IPA was a a deep brown amber with plenty of haze and sediment. I had to go on a nerd tangent and try to guess the malt bill. I was right on with crystal and Munich, I detected chocolate but that was not the case. Slight Amarillo in the nose along with Maris Otter breadiness. The flavor was a mix of cascade and Amarillo, sweet toast from the specialty malts. I will seek this one out, a really great IPA and a great change from 98% pale malt hop bombs.
Overall a great night a beer. Next week we will be focusing not on style but a single ingredient. With all the great Rye beers we have been trying, nod to Goose Islands Rye Stout, we are rounding up some Rye Selections. Maybe even some Fago "Rock And Rye".
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