33 Acres Brewing-  33 Acres of Roam DIPA

BC Beer of the Month

ABV:8.5% IBU: 90

This seasonal DIPA from 33 Acres Brewing is at the time of writing one of the best that I have tried. It is sweet, fruity, citrusy, slightly piney after swallowing, very tropical. A very well rounded double IPA.

What is a double IPA? Typically it is a strong American style pale ale that cellars well due to it’s 8% or above ABV. It is a close relative to a Belgian Trippel, and so it is no surprise to me that 33 Acres, well known for intentionally brewing Belgian style beer, has produced this DIPA.

It is clear for it’s style and exhibits many of the popular flavours of a NE hazy IPA. I have tried a few exceptional DIPA’s that are unfiltered and I wonder what the flavours would have been like if it was left that way.

One of the reasons that I love going into 33 Acres is the relative simplicity of choosing a beer. Look straight ahead when you’re in the line up (usually it’s busy! A good sign) and you see the year round goodness that they offer. Solid.

Look just to your left and on the wall perpendicular are their seasonal and experimental offerings. I’m usually looking to the left these days, but their straight ahead is fantastic if you’re buying beer for a get together and you’re just not sure what everyone will like.  

The bartender at 33 Acres who filled my growler was due to be off in 10 minutes and when I sampled the seasonal brew and immediately loved it, he claimed that he’d be having it in 10 minutes when he was off work. This is a sign of a good beer as far as I am concerned.

While it is listed as 90 IBU, 33 Acres of ROAM is not a bitter beer; rather, some of the hoppiness becomes rounded off by careful selection of malts and yeasts that are used in the beer.  Recently, while filling a growler at Main Street brewing, I was told that a lot of brewers don’t really even consider IBU’s as a very serious measure of bitterness in beer. Whether this true or not, it is interesting to look at why that might be the case. Has craft beer come so far since the macrobrew days that we no longer need to rely on this measure of bitterness? I think that people new to craft beer can still have this metric to decide what beers to purchase. Consumers who don’t know are more likely to settle on what they know and the more information that is offered may be a good thing. On the other hand, more information than someone can absorb all at once might have the same paralytic effect.  

Regardless of my philosophizing over semantics and marketing, this is a great double IPA.

Availability: As of this writing, 33 Acres is all out of this beer at their tasting room, so let’s hope they repeat this seasonal beer soon!