Victory Hop Wallop

Definitely try it! This beer is exploding with hops. Much hoppier than the Hop Devil. Check out the reviews at ratebeer.com.

I suppose, but man, that beer will have travelled a ways. All the way from Downingtown (outside of Philly) to Tigard and back to Wyoming, plus shelf time... ah well. It was great on tap at the brewery's pub a couple of Decembers ago.

Like, um, no duh. Great stuff, once they ironed out their bottling quality control problems.

If Liquid Sol'ns offers any Allagash products, nab them too. You won't be sorry, especially in the case of the Four.

Hop Wallop seems to be even more likely to lose a LOT of it's hop bit and bouquet even quicker than normal for a highly hopped ale. I had a (IIRC) a six pack bottled in May this fall (after drinking 2 cases in the Spring when it first came out) and I couldn't believe it was the same beer- there was little or no hop presence. I kept looking at the label- "Is this the same beer?" I won't touch it if it was more than 3 months old. (HW is still a seasonal/limited brew, right?)

I had great hopes for Hop Wallop, but it turned out to be one of the least impressive IIPAs I've ever had. Quite hoppy and bitter but certainly no balance at all. For East Coast IIPAs, Stoudts' Double IPA was better IMO. That being said, I'd take Ruination, Hop Rod Rye, or Dreadnaught over either.

I'd say Hop Wallop is very good. It's got lemony and peppery hop notes, and, like several other Victory beers, it hides its high ABV remarkably well. However, I don't think HW is up there with Victory's Moonglow weizenbock, Old Horizontal barleywine, or Storm King imperial stout.

I don't think it's up there with St. Boisterous. One of the most overlooked beers on the planet, IMO.

"Lew Bryson" wrote in news:Y1B4e.15269$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com:

Bottles for that are only distributed in the immediate Philly area I thought I heard? I had it on tap on my one trip to Victory and wanted to crawl into the brewing vat and swim in it. Not that that would have helped the flavor or anything.

St. Boisterous might be less overlooked if they'd send some my way. It was very gooooooooooooooooood.

Victory's

imperial

I don't doubt it. I've been itching to try St. Boisterous for years. If only I could find some!

One of the Victory line that seems to be the least-distributed, too, unfortunately. I've seen other Victory beers sold a *long* way from Downingtown, but never the St. Boisterous.

Picked up a case at the brewery last weekend. . . Much like last year's, there's a bit of residual sweetness and it's not as dry as it was a few years back. Still, an outstanding beer.

Stopped into Sly Fox after Victory and had a couple of very nice beers, including a slamming IPA. Thanks again to Lew for putting me onto this place.

I picked some up about a month ago and was sorely underwhelmed.

------->Denny

De nada, man, always happy to help!

Tomorrow, we're headed back to the cheese steak place you turned us onto down on Torresdale before we head out to Keswick Theater for a concert. Since discovering Sly Fox and the cheese steak place last Spring, I've been spending way too much time on the road getting back to them. Still not a huge fan of Monk's, but, based on Lew's recommendation, will be hitting Grey Lodge tomorrow after cheese steaks and before the concert.

Currently enjoying a St. Victorious . . .

Damn. You know, the G-Lodge now does their own cheese steaks, which are really good (but you gotta tell them twice you want fried onions, they seem to forget that part of the order...), along with the Thai Curry Mussels, which are astounding.

Lew -

Had a great lunch at Chink's last Saturday, and wound up taking a full carload of cheese steaks to Keswick for the band and crew. You received due credit for turning us onto this place.

Didn't get to Grey Lodge, but did wind up at Stoudt's on Sunday one the drive home. All I can say is the beers are seriously improved since last time I was there in '94. The Pils, Weizen, Maibock, and Double IPA were all topnotch. Once we got the bartender (Whitey?) to take the sparkler off the cask, the Altbier was perfection in a glass. I almost felt guilty for not visiting Victory.

Sparkler on an Altbier. Sheesh, what will they think of next? When I'm King of the World such things will be capital offenses.

When you are King of the World, you had better mandate that Bill in Casper Wyoming has local access to cask beer or an abdication of the crown would be a foregone conclusion. ;^)

Best regards, Bill

Nah. When he's King of the World, you'll no longer be required to live in Casper, Wyoming. Beer geeks will have jobs in more civilized places. You gotta leave some places to the industrial megabrew drinkers.

You mean the King of the World's palace won't be in downstate Illinois?! Huzzah!

ObBeer: Shared a bottle of JW Lees Harvest Ale 1998 last night. Nice dark caramel flavor, but sweeter and not as complex as I expected from other vintages I've had. Still, not a bad drop at all.