Beer of the Week! 01/17/23

A Couple of Mid-Western Beers

Hoof Hearted Did We Just Become Best Friends? (Mosaic / Amarillo)

Regularly $19.99 / Now on Sale for $17.96
New England Style Double IPA with Pineapple

Hoof Hearted Brewing Company is based in Marengo, OH, just 30 rural minutes north of Columbus up I-71. Founded in 2012, it’s the love child of Trevor Williams and Jarrod Bichon, a refugee from the wine business and a welding engineer, respectively … as well as being two 80s pop-culture, metal head, dude-tastic man-children. Don’t believe us?

Their slogan is “Crafting beers with all the subtlety of David Lee Roth in bunless chaps.” Their labels are designed by a childhood friend and former bandmate (Thom Lessner), whose style “… makes you feel like you’re in middle school every time you see it and that’s where we are at maturity-wise so it’s a good fit.” (Williams) The name “Hoof Hearted” is inspired by a fart joke. See? Told ya’.

Regardless, it’s not about the bros. It’s about the beer.

Do you remember when grapefruit IPAs were all the rage? The idea seemed to be, “We’ve got all these IPAs with grapefruit notes from the hops. Why not just put actual grapefruit in?” It wasn’t like the resultant beers became grapefruit Slushees; they just became more of what they already were. That’s what’s gone on here.

Hoof Hearted has made a double New England style IPA with Amarillo and Mosaic hops and also pineapple. Amarillo can produce the sweeter side of citrus notes in beer, while Mosaic is famous for its cavalcade of floral and tropical fruit notes that it can impart. The subtle addition of pineapple pushes the Did We Just Become Best Friends? squarely into Tropical Fruit Land, delivering a steadily pleasing, juicy double NEIPA. However, despite all of Hoof Hearted’s over the top hype, this brew is balanced surprisingly well. It’s one of those beers that you think is going to be all gimmick but turns out to be quite good.

By the way, is that supposed to be Daryl Hall & John Oates on the Did We Just Become Best Friends? label? They do know that the popular story is that Hall and Oates hate each other, don’t they? (Probably not true, by the way.) So, are they being ironic? Have they not done their research? Are they wittier than we think or more shallow than we hope? Argh! Why is friendship so hard!?! (We’re overthinking this, aren’t we?)

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause like Daryl Hall & John Oates, you want two beers that have their own separate tastes, who don’t hang out socially or collaborate artistically anymore, but still have a perfectly workable and entertaining professional relationship.)

Necromancer Black

Regularly $12.99 / Now on Sale for $11.96
Robust Porter

Necromancer Brewing Company from the North Hills district of Pittsburgh isn’t even two years old.

It was founded in the spring of 2021 by two marketers — Ben Butler and Aaron Easler. Though Butler studied to become a beer expert, they still needed someone to brew. That’s where Lauren Hughes came in, or where Butler and Easler came in as they snatched Hughes from Pittsburgh’s oldest beer company, Penn Brewery.

Hughes started homebrewing in college. First, a friend introduced her to craft beer, then the same friend urged her to try a homebrewing kit. (Raise a glass to friends who support us.) By the end of college, Hughes was working at Sun King Brewery in Indianapolis. After moving to Pittsburgh with non-beer professional plans, she found her way back into brewing, getting her first job in 2018 and then moving to Penn Brewery a year later. By the time our machinating marketers approached her, she had become Penn’s Assistant Head Brewer. Now, with Necromancer, she’s in charge of her own shop.

Necromancer began with a three tier brew plan: Trends — what’s popular now, ‘cause you gotta’ pay the bills; Familiars — what’s always been popular; and Resurrections — less-than-popular, abandoned, or forgotten styles (their real passion). The Black, as a Robust Porter, probably fits into their “Familiars” category. (They also have a cream ale they call the “Gold.” Black and gold are the Pittsburgh Steelers’ colors, you see.)

Robust Porters usually have bite. Whether it’s from the hops or the roast in the malts, there’s usually something to give you a little “kick” as it goes down. However, Hughes has brewed this Robust Porter to have a “balanced drinkability.” There’s still some roast there and some bitterness, but they’re moderate enough to allow this beer to be just the kind of crowd pleaser you want to sell by the pitcher in your burgeoning brew pub.

Remember!

You can see our entire beer inventory on Untappd.com!