Confessions of a Hop Head

by Carol, (a.k.a. Marcofrau)

   When my husband first introduced me to beer, real beer, I drank the fruity stuff. You know, the beer they throw the raspberries into so the girls will drink it. Or the sweet stuff. Honey, nutty, cute-squirrels-in-bowties beer. When he handed me a glass of, say, Three Floyds Alpha King, I would make a face and push it back. “Eww, too hoppy,” I would say.
   Ah, what a difference. I am now a card-carrying (without the card) Hop Head. An unrepentant Lupulin Lover Extraordinare. The hoppier the better, I always say. Winter is tough for me. It’s the time of the heavy, smoky, stouty stuff. I like summer because pale ales come out for the their season in the sun. I like the leafy smell and bitter taste of the hoppier stuff. This could be just in keeping with my taste buds. I like bitter, tart and spicy -- sour raspberry candy, tea without sugar and curry are top tastes for me.
   Most of your hoppy beers will be India Pale Ales, so named because they were highly hopped by the British to survive the journey to their colonies in India. Generally, I frown on colonialism, but I am torn on this one.
   As a way to praise one of the essentials of what makes beer beer, I present my Hop Hits, the Top of the Hops and all that, including the top five beers for those who worship the cone divine along with others that are also fine:
   1) Goose Island India Pale Ale. You are imagining hop leaves in your teeth, although you can’t be blamed for it. Available widely (Dominick’s usually has it) this beer is 99 percent of the time found in our refridgerator. Hop aroma, taste and flavor, through and through.
   2) Three Floyds Alpha King. If a bar has this on draft, it’s a good bar. This is the beer I end the night with, mostly because the hops have a soporific effect on me. It’s de-lovely, and so much tastier than warm milk. Slightly softer all around than the aggressive Goose IPA.
3) Bell's Two Hearted Ale. This is a sophisticated, premium hop blend. Also very good on tap. Not as easy to find though, although our grocery store down the street strangely had it a few weeks ago.
   4) Red Seal Pale Ale by Mendocino Brewing. Usually on tap at Quenchers, again a
premium hop brew. And again, hard to find on tap and in bottles. Really, the only thing that makes this a “4” as opposed to a “3” is Midwestern pride. Mendocino is in California and Bell’s is in Michigan.
   5)Emmett’s American Pale, Emmett’s Brewpub. This beer is remarkable because it’s from a brewpub. Usually, brewpub beers tend to be, for very good business reasons, un-hoppy. We hop-heads are, after all, a scant bunch. But Emmett’s, a new pub in the quaint Fox River town of West Dundee, Illinois, hopped it up on their maiden run and for that they should be commended.

Last, but not certainly not less hoppy

A Hop Cats IPA should, by it’s name, tell you something. The bartender at this Clybourn Avenue brewpub, Paul, drops a hop cone in for true lupulin madness. You can dry hop your own beer. It’s fun! But, alas, the business of brewpubs being what it is, this brew has been less hoppy in recent trips. But we appreciate Hop Cats’ eclecticism and willingness to experiment. And this list must mention Lunar Brewing Company’s Nine Nine Ninety Nine ale and the holy hop roller Attack from Planet Lupulin, (editor's note -- lupulin is the compound in hops that provides bitterness) served in a snifter. Lunar Brewing is one of the few forces keeping us in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. So is Weinkeller Brewery in Westmont, which makes a great IPA as well. Oregon (by Boston Beer), Wild Goose and and Avery make good IPA’s (usually found in bottle). Chicago’s Wild Onion Paddy Ale (described by my husband above) is yummy, as is New Glarus Hearty Hop.
I encourage and welcome new hop-head initiates, mostly because if there are more of you out there I will find the hoppy stuff on tap. But it’s not all selfish. If you have tastes that run a little left of center, you are probably a hop head in waiting.

Send comments and suggestions to: marc@marcobrau.com