I picked up a bottle of Elysian Brewing's The Immortal IPA during my truncated trip to City Beer Store in San Francisco last week. (My browsing was cut short because no one under 21 is allowed in City Beer Store and I couldn't leave my kids out on the street while I absorbed the inventory, but I did leave them out long enough for my glass of Sanctification. Sometimes you just can't compromise.) I wanted a beer not available in San Diego, a beer I had not tried and a beer that was good. I had read on the Beer Retard that he was fond of Elysian's beers, they are not, to my knowledge, available in San Diego and I had never tried an Elysian beer. My choice was sealed when I saw The Immortal IPA - how could a beer with that name not be bold and aggressive. I picked up a bottle for later consumption.Later, back in the hotel when I opened the beer for a nightcap (and to make the dreadful America's Got Talent more palatable), I read on the label that The Immortal IPA was brewed for Elysian Brewing by New Belgian (uggh). Nothing against New Belgian, but I was not really looking for a beer contract brewed by it. Immortal poured a rich copper with a big white foam. I was looking for a floral, Northwest-style IPA, but did not get one. It was a balanced IPA, but the hops were mild. It was drinkable for sure, but overall unremarkable. I really like Bridgeport's IPA, and it's what I think of when I see a Northwest IPA and was hoping for in The Immortal. With that in mind, some day, maybe I will get to try another The Immortal with a different perspective and have a better opinion of it.
2 comments:
I liked the bottle I had of it (had to trade for a couple years ago). It had a different label too. It tasted fresh and hoppy, nice and aggressive. I wonder if it's changed recently? I noticed within this last year that Elysian made a beer for some event up there in Washington called "Dry hopped Immortal IPA." I was pretty surprised at that because it would seem to imply that regular Immortal IPA is not dry hopped. After the bottle I had I would have never guessed that.
Yeah, I saw on the BeerAdvocate link that the label had changed. This beer may have been a bit old, which would have muted the hops. I thought I tasted a tinge of oldness, but was not sure so I didn't put in the original post. I was a good beer, just not as good as I was expecting.
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