Saturday, December 10, 2011
Half Acre Daisy Cutter
I've got another 16 oz. can from Half Acre Beer Company (and again, thanks to regular reader (and buddy!) Steve Herberger for the trade): Daisy Cutter Pale Ale. You know...15 years ago, we'd have said this was an IPA (even at 5.2% ABV) and whistled at how bitter and hoppily aromatic it is. Now? Definitely a pale ale in the sliding scale that is today's Hoppy Ale Continuum, and definitely perky and tasty. There's a serious snappy bitterness on the end, too. I recommend this to my buddy who thinks pale ales "have nothing to say anymore." Listen up, fathead.
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13 comments:
Reminded me a lot of Bell's Two Hearted and both are delicious.
I found the Daisy Cutter near to harsh. From my review on my BA account:
If someone is specifically looking for a bitter hop kick, this beer is for them. Personally, I like hops, but the resin character in this one would only get me through one glass -- and maybe not even that. Harsh is an easy word to apply here, but it doesn't quite hit that stage, though it might in a second pint.
Compared with Two Hearted, I find the Bell's much smoother and easier to drink -- and now we're back to the question between modern Pale Ale and IPA.
I'm not getting the comparison to Two Hearted...but I didn't find it harsh, either. Sharp, intense, pointed, but not harsh. Could I do two pints? Don't know, but I'd like to try. As for the question between modern pales and IPA, it's a blurred line, almost a smear, up near the top. There are, I think, a good number of pale ales that are clearly not IPAs, nor are they aiming for that divide.
"Sharp, intense, pointed, but not harsh. Could I do two pints?"
Yeah, that's the point I was getting at -- it's not quite creosote, but that resin character is teetering!
Did you see this Lew?
http://beernews.org/2011/12/half-acre-beer-co-inks-philly-distribution-deal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=half-acre-beer-co-inks-philly-distribution-deal
NO! Well, I'll be dipped. Philly really is The Place That Gets Everything.
So why do you think they would name this after a notoriously nasty piece of military ordnance?
I wondered that same thing, Sam.
Sam, why did the military steal the nickname of fast ground balls in baseball for their nasty piece of ordnance?
I guess the answer is that originality is dead.
Maybe they are fans of cricket.
Also, it appears it may just be in Philly in kegs for the most part, similar to Pliny the Elder. We'll see I guess.
Hell, I never heard that one, Steven. Thanks for the perspective. Maybe the Half Acre folks are old-timey baseball nuts.
"Maybe the Half Acre folks are old-timey baseball nuts."
I can't speak to their allegiances, but their facility is within blocks of Wrigley Field.
I believe the original label on the bottled version of Daisy Cutter involved bombs -- when they moved to cans, that vanished.
A friend puts together an annual German pub crawl through Beermapping.com each May, because there are a number of German bars and restaurants both south and north of the Half Acre brewery, plus a German-themed festival then in the neighborhood. A few years back, we were able to schedule a brewery tour at Half Acre in the middle of the crawl, and the zing of the hops in super-fresh Daisy Cutter was a beautiful change of pace from the rest of the day's delightful fare.
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