Ninkasi Brewing Company - Tricerahops Double IPA

Evening everyone! Hope you're having a good week. It's actually raining here in San Diego tonight. That has nothing to do with tonight's beer, I just figured it was somewhat newsworthy. It IS San Diego after all, the land of 75 and sunny year round. But enough bragging.

It's a new beer tonight for me. I've never had this one and I'm really looking forward to trying this one. Tonight I'm drinking Tricerahops from Ninkasi Brewing out of Eugene Oregon. Tricerahops is a Double IPA coming in at 8.8% abv. So pretty big DIPA and I'm quite all right with that. So let's get this one opened and I'll let you know my thoughts on the Tricerahops (awesome name btw).

Tricerahops pours out a beautiful golden color, slightly copper maybe with some hints of orange. This beer is crystal clear, no haze whatsoever. There's about a finger to maybe just a tad more than a finger of fluffy white head which dissipates very quickly. There's a nice web-like lacing left behind. A decent amount of carbonation streaming up from the bottom of the glass which is nice to see. Not sure when this was bottled but at least this tells me we're not looking at a flat beer. Always a plus! Let's get the nose.

Big fruit notes. Big pear, peaches, a bit of a sticky peach sweetness. Quite a bit of orange citrus, maybe even a mandarin orange going on here. There's a nice bit of floral shining through behind that initial blast of fruits. There's a good hop bitterness too, smells very fresh, slightly dank but not dank in the garlic/onion sense. Just a big hoppy, bitter beer. Smells wonderful. Let's see how Tricerahops tastes! 

Honestly this follows the nose very well. First thing I notice is a real nice bitter hop character, very floral and slightly earthy. That initial bitterness is followed up by a lot of those fruits; pears, peach, orange citrus, and surprisingly a bit of an apple. Not an overly sweet apple, slightly bitter. Sides of the palate you get the fruits and some sweet caramel kind of notes. Back end of this beer, this finishes incredibly dry. One of the more drying DIPA I can remember having in recent months. No alcohol from that 8.8% at all. Not even a warming sensation as it goes down. Really easy drinking DIPA. 

So overall, I'm really digging the Tricerahops. I went into this not expecting much but I'm definitely surprised by how good and balanced this beer is. It's not a big time hop bomb. The hops are certainly present but not kicking you in the teeth like a majority of DIPA are these days. I'd honestly have never guessed this was a DIPA. It's mellow but in a very pleasing way. I'd recommend this one for sure. Easy drinking, flavorful, reasonably priced. If I had to have a complaint I'd just say it's a little easy on the bitterness for a DIPA. I'm used to the big in your face palate destroyers and this is not one of them. So that's it. That's my only knock and it's minor at that.

Rating: A-

Here's a video of my wife trying Tricerahops. Requested by some of my friends.