Surly 3dh Triple IPA. 10% ABV. BC Small Batch. Surly Brewing Company, Brooklyn Center (& Minneapolis), MN.Clear, bright golden color, lasting, lace-leaving ivory head.
In the nose: Fruity, citrus, tropical, but straying from sweet, ending on dry. Quite likable.
In the mouth: Whoa! Bold blast of bitter from the start, a jolt of hops to the palate, exiting swiftly and turning dry on a dime. Big citrus and pine, with alcohol rushing on in. Aburst with flavor. Stays quite far away from being overly sweet.
This has got just the right hop tastiness, the correct juicy, and all the booze without going over the top. It's giving me all the things I like, and it's getting juicy and boozy together at once.
This, I dig.
From the label: Cloaked amid the brewhouse shadows, rites and rituals conjure impossible hop flavor. Over the low rumble of equipment, whispers of a triple dry-hopped beer arise. New and unknowable, 3DH is your initiation. Join us and live.
And from the website: “The trouble with a lot of triple IPAs is that I’ve never really had one I liked.”
This, from Surly Head Brewer Ben Smith, was the hurdle to clear for making 3DH, the triple IPA that’s our latest BC Small Batch offering.
“Finding one I truly liked was difficult,” said Smith. “They’re under-attenuated, too boozy, and too sweet. It was a challenge for our brew team to solve. I think we succeeded. Maybe too well, because it’s real easy to drink for a 10% (ABV) beer.”
3DH is triple dry-hopped (hence the name) on Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra. “We added glucose solids to make it super dry, we used a simple malt bill, and then we dry-hopped the hell out of it,” says Smith. Experimentation came into play with FLEX® by Haas, a kettle bittering addition that boosted the IBUs without losing the yield one would expect from an extensively hopped beer.
The result is a highly aromatic and flavorful triple IPA that goes right up to the edge without going over. But you can see it from there.
With that in mind, and with that many hops, the recommendation is to drink it fresh and drink it now. 45 days from the brew date is ideal. The turnover on our BC Small Batch beers is monthly, and most beer geeks don’t need to be told to chase fresh beer, but we really mean it this time. Cellar something else.
The particulars:
ABV: 10%
Hops: Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra
Aroma: Lemon, honey, biscuit
Visual: Light orange
Where: MN, ND, WI, Chicagoland
When: Now
No comments:
Post a Comment