United Nations of Beer

Hop Rocket

by Jason Pinkowski
(Beer Delegate, WI, USA)

Hop Rocket
Hereford and Hops, Escanaba, MI, USA

As autumn began to descend upon Wisconsin, my wife Katie and I decided to take a drive up to the Northern reaches of the state to take in some of the fall colors. We decided to make our way up towards the Wausau area since the fall colors were at peak level, there was great hiking in the area, and some beautiful scenic overlooks of the Wisconsin River.

As we made our way up, we stopped at Rib Mountain to enjoy the leaves changing with a great hike around the peak with our dog, Juno. Being the Wisconsin Beer Delegate for the UNOB, I decided to see what the area had to offer in the way of brewpubs or microbrews.

A quick internet search revealed that we were in the hometown of Hereford and Hops. Hereford and Hops is actually a small chain of brewpubs with locations in Wausau, WI, Escanaba, Michigan and Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. While we were in town my wife Katie agreed to stop by and pick up some brews to sample.

Since we had Juno along, we were unable to stop in and stay at the bar, but we did order some food and I picked us up a bomber of everything they had to offer. That was comprised of a five pack of 22oz bombers of brew that included the Whitetail Ale, the Dortmunder Lager, the Cleary Red, "Old Deceitful" barleywine and the Hop Rocket Amber ale. My wife and I shared the bottle of Whitetail Ale with our meals that evening (a very fine beer I might add), but the rest of the bombers were brought home to enjoy later.

Upon my return home, I decided to try the Hop Rocket Amber ale first. The brewery describes it as having "a dominant hop character balanced with a medium malty base. The American hops used create a distinct piney, citrus flavor and aroma. At 5.2% abv, this is a balanced session beer."

As a connoisseur of hops, this beer intrigued me from the beginning. My initial impression was that although the beer is certainly dominated by hop flavor and aroma, it wasn't overwhelming.

I truly expected a bigger hop attack from this beer, but quickly found that I really loved the balance of this beer.

Hop Rocket Amber ale poured with a burnt orange hue with a head that was thin but stable. It was white in color and left a nice lace around the glass. The aroma from this beer was very nice with a nice moderate citrus hop aroma. My initial thought was a blend of hops, with Cascade being the dominant hop. A quick email to head brewer, Kevin Bowen, revealed that the hops are a blend of the American Cs, Centennial, Cascade and Chinook.

The grain bill was actually a bit more complex than I had originally thought. It is a blend of two row and pale ale base malts, medium caramel malt, Victory malt, carapils and chocolate. I have to admit as a homebrewer, this type of information from the brewer is fantastic. The grain bill was a great balance to the hops and left the drinker with a balanced beer that was exceptional.

Again, this beer is well balanced for those that like hops, but still not so over the top that the average beer drinker would be scared by an overwhelming hop presence. Although catergorized as an amber ale, I found it to be more of an APA due to the amount of hops present in the aroma.

Overall, this beer was very pleasant and worth a stop. Now I still have three of the Hereford and Hops brews in my refrigerator ready for evaluation. Of course I will be needing the help of a few friends on the Barleywine, so that review may take awhile to come out.