Double Orange: Not Your Average IPA #BrewedAwakening
This week I was in Halifax for the Great Canadian Kitchen Party (a fundraiser for Nova Scotia athletes, and the local qualifying event for the Canadian Culinary Championships). I was one of the wine and beer judges (congrats to Blomidon for winning best beverage for their 2014 Blanc de Noir). I also got to judge some of Stillwell and Two Crows‘ more interesting brews (the Stillwell Make 1, 2 is an authentic Farmhouse Ale, and 2 Crows’ Fantacity dry hopped wit is simply delicious), as well as some good stuff from Yarmouth’s Heritage.
While in the city, I also had a chance to pop into a couple of popular breweries with tap rooms, Unfiltered and Good Robot , both cool spots, filled with happy drinkers on a Friday night.
Although I have a reputation as “that guy who hates IPAs,” it’s far from true. I just want balance and variety, so I don’t like pubs that have a tap list that is 90% IPA and DIPA, with no regular strength beers with IBUs under 40. But I do enjoy a really good, well balanced IPA, and that brings me to Unfiltered’s Double Orange.
This IPA is legendary in Atlantic beer circles and it gets around; I taste it sometimes in Saint John at Pepper’s Pub. So it was nice to try it at the source for a change. Brewer Greg Nash is famous for making hop forward beers that have a nice malt balance as well as persistent bitterness that doesn’t destroy your mouth. As explained here Double Orange does not actually contain oranges, although the citra hop driven aromatics and palate might convince one otherwise. As they say on the site, “And we used a proprietary colour and flavour development technique. (Maybe Nash will tell you about it. And maybe he won’t.)” I have heard the story, and it involves melanoidin development, but that’s too technical to bother with here.
Suffice it to say that the beer looks kind of orange, tastes and smells of orange, and is delicious.