Southern Craft Beer Tour: Part I


Two weekends ago, my family had the pleasure (and the pain) of traveling by car from New Jersey to North Carolina with a toddler and an infant. Fortunately, the destination was a wondrous one--my twin sister's wedding. And as a welcome plus, I got to try some local craft beers along the way. For me, that's an excellent antidote for a tempest of screaming, pooping, whining, and running amok for over twelve hours on the road.

We arrived the day before the wedding, right on time for a familial southern barbecue. And thank goodness, in an off-to-the-side ice chest, there were some local craft beer selections for sampling.

The two I picked up straight away were both IPAs; I wanted to compare them. I wasn't sure it would be a very fair comparison, however, because according to its label, one of the two  was an English-style IPA, meaning it would likely have less intense hop bitterness and flavor, and more of a toasty, caramel quality than its American-style opponent. I tend to be partial to English IPAs, so I was hoping there would be enough similarities between the two for me to compare them objectively.

In above-and-beyond beer maven fashion, I requested that my sister, the bride, pose with both unopened bottles for this blog.

On the left we have the American IPA, Hoppyum, from Foothills Brewing Company, and on the right is the English IPA, Natty Greene's Elm Street. Before that day, I'd never had a beer from either brewery.

Hoppyum was a solid, standard American IPA. A fine beer, but nothing to write home (or here) about. The English IPA surprised me, but not in a good way. While it exhibited English-style characteristics in that the hops were more earthy than citrusy, it lacked the malty sweetness I've come to expect from this type of beer. According to Natty Greene's website, Elm Street has only 55 IBUs (International Bittering Units), but this was a bitter beer indeed. It was almost astringent--without the malt to balance the hops, I felt like I was sucking on tea bags coated I coffee grinds. 

On RateBeer.com, Elm Street scores a dismal 51 in comparison to Hopoyum's 93. The reviewers, however, seemed to pick up on the caramel and malt much more than I did, also pointing out some tropical fruit tastes. Maybe I had a bad bottle. It happens! 

Later on in the festivities, I had two more beers by Natty Greene's, an Irish Red Ale, and a Pale Ale. Both were fairly average in my opinion, but much better than Elm Street. Yikes.