The Swill: Longhammer India Pale Ale
The Still: Red Hook Ale Brewery
Woodinville, Washington
http://www.redhook.com
The Drill: India Pale Ale, 12oz bottle, 6.5% ABV
The Spill: Not as intense as many other IPAs, this beer is a highly approachable specimen of its class. Crisp and clean with hops, but only to a bitterness of 38.5 IBU, it's an easy-drinking, flavorful beer that plays well with your dinner. A great session beer for sure, this is the kind of beer that equals summer in this drinker's eyes.
Says Bill: With summer here, I've been working on developing a taste for pale ales and other highly-hopped beers. Never my standard, as I've always been a stout fellow (in taste, anyway; staturewise I think to think of myself as long and lanky), they're still a clear winner over the alternative sissy brews that are made with the purpose of quenching the heat rather than satisfying a picky palate. Come wintertime, I'll gladly go mad over the roasted malty stouts and porters again, but in the meantime, this served as a great introduction to the pales for me, and would for you, too.
Refill?: Stop. Hammertime: 3.5 taps out of 5.