After frequenting the
late night/cocktail evening at the Fallow Deer Café for a while, you
kind of get used to the flavours of certain things and if like me
your curiosity stretches beyond the gentle sort, then you'll always
be searching for some a little different with more varied experiences
and tastes. After trying many of the cocktails, avoiding the classics
that I've had so much of over the years, even had a stint making them
on a regular basis when I worked at a cocktail bar in Sydney,
Australia. The cocktails are great by the way, my mate certainly
knows what he's doing.
This time I decided to
go for the other Odell beer they had, the Odell IPA. At 7% it is like
the slightly stronger more intense and refined bigger brother to the
Odell 5 Barrels Pale Ale. Apparently the beers
are selected by a guy who works at the Real Ale shop in Richmond,
London.
Once again I have let
my previous experiences influence my judgement of a beer before I
have even tried it, this time yet again wrongly. Another American
Pale Ale gets the tick from me. It's not like some of the 'Imperial'
IPAs I've tried here, the States and even in Australia which are
usually around 9% and have something way overpowering like the booze
or hops or even a thick treacle maltiness that feels and tastes like
a whisk(e)y reduction. It is certainly nothing like the watered down
so called IPAs that often a lot of breweries will churn out with no
real idea of what they are actually producing, Green King IPA springs
to mind there.
I even like the label
on this beer. There is a little Indian fellow riding on an elephant
resembling an old Mid-Western Cowboy riding on a bull during a rodeo.
Except this little guy is controlling a bigger stronger wild beast. A
great little thing showing how this brewery is paying homage to the
original roots of the IPA beer but with a unique twist that only an
American could do. It's subtle touches like that that really get me
going, bloody fantastic.
Odell, you have done it
once again. I think I'll have another and another and maybe another.
Check out the Real Ale shops website
Click on any Odell for a link to their IPA
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