Sunday Night Suds - Sprecher IPA2

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Sprecher's Ipa2 (aka IPA sqaured or Double IPA).

Another beer that was brought in from the Midwest for me at a family simcha in MD (thanks again Jake!). This was not a beer that I knew was available on the market and did not see on the Binny's website. However, after I phoned in an order to have ready for pick up, I got a call back from Binny's about this brand new beer which they had just gotten in.

As regular readers of this column are aware, I am a big fan of IPAs as I love the hoppiness and crisp flavor of an American IPA. When Binny's told me that Sprecher had made a double IPA, I jumped at the opportunity and had it added to my tab. Little did I know that this was a seder beer. What is a seder beer? Its a beer that is different than all other beers, sometimes for good and sometimes for the drain.

By way of explanation, I had tried quite a few Sprecher beers before putting in an order for the Double IPA and I had found that they ranged from slightly above average to outstanding. Additionally, while Sprecher only sells their beer in 4 packs - the bottles are usually true pint bottles (16 oz). However the Double IPA was a four pack of traditional 12 oz bottles.

By now you can probably see where this is going ... the Sprecher IPA2 was not a typical IPA. The beer itself was exceedingly bitter, but not in a traditional IPA manner. I had started with a little floral flavor but by the end it was just a dry, slightly flat beer. It almost seemed like they were trying to create a barleywine type flavor, but even if I had tried the beer with the expectation that it was a barleywine, I still would not have thought that it was true to style. I may try one more of the four pack, but if I don't like it I will probably try to give away the other two.

Sprecher IPA2 is certified kosher by Wisconsin Kosher and their is a kosher symbol on the four pack holder, although not on the individual bottles. For the experts' take on the Sprecher IPA2 please click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/144/37308.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!