Gather round dear reader (yes, I’m aware that reader is not pluralized…). Today, I shall regale you with tales of regalia. Knee socks and knotted belts and all sorts of things! Things better spoken of than committed to print, and better yet not spoken… nor thought, really. What the hell? I didn’t sleep well last night, OK?

Lagunitas is a DAMN good brewery. They score left and right and I have not been let down by a single one of their beers. If they had been around as long as Sierra Nevada, they’d be as big, and that is a sizeable doff of my hat–I love Sierra Nevada’s work. Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout is stouty, their Pale hoppy and refreshing, their Pils crisp and, well, I just used the word refreshing but… it is too. Their IPA? Wild, friends, wild. Read on! Or cower in your hovels, shrieking at the thunderclouds and looking for signs in the bones you’ve cast! Actually, that sounds awesome. You read, I’m going to go with the latter.

Here is the link to their website… which is full of very odd and halting syntax and strange personal touches. It rubs me the right way, but I bet most will find it confusing. Sigh. Oh, most of you… anyway, below the link is a brief excerpt from their site about this brau.

http://www.lagunitas.com/index.html:“India Pale Ale
Thanks for choosing to spend the next few minutes with this special homicidally hoppy ale. Savor the moment as the raging hop character engages the imperial qualities of the Malt foundation in mortal combat on the battlefield of your palate!”

Hyperbole? Sure. But this beer is indeed wild. You crack a bottle or tap a keg and a veritable coven of hoppiness fills the room, drifting around your nostrils and up, like, into your nostrils. And you uh… smell the hops. The sip is sharp, crisp and almost biting, but really, just delicous. The whole thing is just a river of hop, from the initial aroma to the finish which lingers on the tongue and palate for much longer than a typical IPA. The malt is there, but you have to search around your mouth for it. Make sure this here beer is nice and cool when you drink it. If you’re hot, that will help. Like temperature wise. Don’t get a swelled head, head swelly. Gross… you may want to get that looked at.

This IPA is serious. Unlike the Big Eye I drank and reviewed last week, some who like Pale Ales may not even like this beer. Naturally, I scoff at said “some” but, in a condescending way, I understand. Why… is that a challenge from the Captain to you? Not exactly, as there’s no financial gain in it for me if you try this beer, but I guess there’s a bit of room for back-slapping of you like it, or face-slapping* if you don’t. At any rate, drink on, friends.

*Not my first choice for anatomical “slap” words, but this is a family site…