Hi-Wire "Man Eater" Double IPA

When I visited the brewery in Asheville, North Carolina, most of the beers that I had there were absolutely delicious. This reaffirms my belief that beer simply taste better whenever you're closer to the source and you get it fresh. Of course, this is particular to whichever style of beer you decided to try. Now that I'm back home, a double IPA sounds like it should be just about perfect here (having been given a bit of time to age).

The copper beer has enough head to bubble up and... there's the lacing of a beer that I have been longing for. The foam is a patchy and sticky substance that leaves splotches of big bubbles and trails tiny bubbles after them. The aroma is musty pine and citrus over a yeasty malt. I like DIPAs, and I really expect to like this one a lot.

First sip is more pine than I expected, and it is rounded out by the meat of a heap of citrus fruits and that malt is sweetening everything up very nicely. The bitterness and tartness re-enter before it finishes up.

Tip-in is medium carbonation burn with orange and lemons zesting all over the place. The middle asserts a bread malt into the citrus and the pine starts scraping on the roof of the mouth while the carbonation stabs at the tongue. The finish is the musty yeast and the pine mixing to make a bitter stew that trails off into grains that are tinged with citrus.

Bottom Line: Not the best DIPA I've had, but it's still not terrible when it gets a bit of heat in it.

2.5/5