Hopalicious

by Jason Pinkowski
(Beer Delegate, WI, USA)

Hopalicious! And it does what it says on the tin, according to Jason Pinkowski

Hopalicious is a beer that I first had at the Midwinter beer festival at the Milwaukee Ale House. What a fantastic beer... but is it really? I was at a festival and my palate was pretty shot. Beers that I usually love tasted somehow very off to me.

In August of 2007 I was able to make it to the Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival in Ale Asylum's backyard Madison, WI, once again deciding that this was a fantastic-tasting beer.

After the festival the group headed back to Ale Asylum to continue on with our drinking duties. I had more than my fair share of this beer that night, professing my love for it. Too bad I cannot get it here in Milwaukee.

Fast forward a few months and suddenly Ale Asylum is offering their beers here in Milwaukee. Of course my first choice of beers to pick up from them is Hopalicious, this way I can taste it on its own with a fresh palate and give it a very fair review.

I get home with the six pack and crack open the first one and am greeted with a huge nose full of Cascade hops. It smells wonderful as I pour it into the pint glass I got from Ale Asylum from my trip earlier in the year. The beer pours a beautiful amber color which is hazy with hop particles since the beer is not filtered.

According to their literture, Hopalicious is hopped 11 times with cascade. Often times beers that are that heavily hopped will be a very difficult beer to get clear, since the hops tend to haze up the beer, and this is clearly the case here. The head on the beer is small and thin, but white in color and leaves a nice delicate lace around the glass.

As the beer warms a bit in the glass I take in a nice whiff to see that the hop aroma is still just as large as it was when I first opened the bottle. The mouthfeel is light and refreshing, not too thick which makes this beer an easy drinker. The carbonation level is low, maybe a little too low for an American Pale Ale, but not that could also be my personal taste.

I love the flavor of this beer, which gives you a fantastic Cascade hop flavor and aroma without being overly bitter. That is certainly the advantage of 11 hop additions in a beer, it allows you to make the beer big in flavor and aroma without killing you in the bitterness department.

Often times when beers are 'hopbursted' like this, the bitterness is often too low and unbalanced, but not in this beer.

I highly recommend this beer for hopheads that are looking for a good easy drinking American Pale Ale. Great job, Ale Asylum!