Results are in. And I'm actually coherent.. Mission failed?
It ended up just being two of us.. A truly STOUT task at hand for a IPA lover and a fan of almost anything (it ended up being 75% me sampling which I originally envisioned over a 3-4 hour span).... The IPAs were "aging" and this proved the best time, if not for another week from now on a holiday weekend.
Above is an original photo of what we would be trying out
The two of us had a third party pouring smaller blind samples into glasses
- This ended up being the order that we sampled...
1- Sculpin
2- Elevated
3- Project Dank
4- HT
5- Father Nelson
6- Pliny
Tasting blindly we had no original concept of what they looked like. But they ended up looking like this... same order as above
All this build up and the results were not that shocking... Smell wise, only two stood out to both of us. #3 Project Dank, and #5 Father Nelson. They had that hint of strong onion like nelson sauvin hop bite.
Taste wise, #1, #2, and #6 all tasted soo similar. I could guess that #3 and #5 were La Cumbre dank or nelson, but guessed #6 as elevated IPA. I feel ashamed. I drink this stuff 2-3 times a week. I've heard the pliny/elevated comparison before. This sort of confirms that first hand.. HT seemed to stay within this same non "onion like" IPA group for the longest time.
Sculpin, elevated, and pliny created a genre in and of itself.. That left dank and father nelson among the likes of heady topper. HT stood out as the only one to kind of have that smooth almost "flat" like beer mouth feel. The aroma didnt really stand out against nelson or dank, but it seemed to be more in lines with the other 3. It may take a keen nose and an investigative spirit that may not always work out.. This was truly once in a lifetime getting all these beers together at once for tasting. Nelson may be back during winter time, but when will I get a relatively fresh set of east coast and west coast beers to compare?
Overall, locals may carry some deep seeded biases that we don't really know about until its too late. Sculpin, Pliny, and Elevated had 95% the same overall characteristics that I could see myself switching any of them out for another.. Heady stood out with its creamy almost flat out mouthfeel. It was so different that it became a distinguishable characteristic. At the same time, the smell and overall taste may not be worth the overall hassle or trouble/price to obtain. So many locals come very very close to reach that level or evenness, others seem to want to seek out that UNKNOWN factor that is a VT breweries DIPA... I can safely say that I am beyond that hype.
Finding a winner is impossible... But considering my proximity to La Cumbre in NM. I see no reason to see out the other stuff. NM residents need to realize fast just how good they have it.
