Draught Works releases new Double IPA – 2 AM Beauty Queen

If you’re in the mood for a new beer around Missoula, Draught Works recently released a Double IPA with a flattering name … 2 AM Beauty Queen. I haven’t tried it yet but here’s how the brewery describes it:

We are proud to introduce Scepter Head’s older sister.  We like to think she is a “2 at 10 and and 10 at 2″.  With an ABV of 8.5% and 100+ IBUs, she has copious amounts of Cascade, Galena, Saaz, Golden, and Glacier hops.  The aroma carries a strong tropical fruit tone with specific passionfruit, pineapple, and mango highlights.  The 2 AM Beauty Queen has assertive bitterness complimented by light carmel notes and strong hop characteristics.  Due to the large amount of hops, we recommend drinking this one fresh, not aged.

- Matt Pritchard

IPA: King of craft beer

Here’s a nice look at this year’s 29th annual Great American Beer Festival, which was held last month in Denver. I, like any self-respecting beer drinker, love IPAs. Writer Eric Gorski of the Associated Press goes behind the scenes of the event’s most hotly-contested category, American-style IPA. Enjoy.

Veronica Bechtold of Lancaster, Pa., wears a crown of hops as she taste a beer at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Photo by Ed Andrieski/Associated Press

DENVER – The quest for top honors in American craft brewing has come here, to a hotel ballroom marked “restricted access.”
More than 140 bottles of American-style India Pale Ale sit stacked in donated Bud Light and King Cobra boxes, labors of hop love brewed by a cast of characters that includes an organic chemist, a man with a grim reaper tattoo and a guy who wants to make a beer that tastes like orange sherbet mixed with hot fudge ice cream.
Over the next nine hours, beer identified only by number will get sniffed, scrutinized, swallowed and spit out by judges at the 29th annual Great American Beer Festival, the world’s largest beer competition.
Only one American-style IPA will win gold, making it the craft beer equivalent of winning “American Idol.” Since 2001, no other contest category has been as competitive. “Every brewer wants this one,” as one judge put it.
It’s a simple case of supply and demand: the IPA’s popularity is soaring among brewers and drinkers alike, a testament to a maturing American beer palate and this country’s rich supply of hops in the Pacific Northwest.
“As you go through the journey of beer education and appreciation, hops and big hoppy character are something most people eventually gravitate toward,” said Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, Calif., a pioneer of the style. “They are just extraordinarily satisfying on the palate. Words almost fail for me. I feel like waxing poetic, and then my eyes sort of get soft. It’s a romantic subject for me.”
Consumers are showing the love. IPAs, distinguished by strong hop character and higher alcohol content than your standard 5.0 percent alcohol per volume beer, surpassed amber ales and trailed only pale ales this year among top-selling craft brewing styles at supermarkets, according to Chicago-based market research firm Symphony IRI Group. Eight of the top 15-selling new craft brands in 2010 are IPAs. (more…)

YouTube – Big Sky Brewing Company’s Double Rainbow IPA

This is a little “When Harry Met Sally-ish,” but it’s funny nonetheless.

Watch this first:

And then watch this:

Prost,

GG