Beer of the Week! 11/20/23

Basic City Twins of Gemini

Normally $14.99 / Now on Sale for $13.96
Double New England Style IPA

Basic City’s Constellation Series is a collection of Double New England Style IPAs named after constellations. Looking at the name for this latest release, you would expect a duo of hops in the Gemini. However, we are treated to a quartet (twin twins?) — Mosaic, Strata, Motueka, and a new one for us, Meridian.

The story of Meridian is the story of another hop — Columbia. In the 60s, Anheuser-Busch wanted a replacement for the English hop, Fuggles. Ten years of Oregon hop development later, they tasted a half dozen options, out of which their tasting panel chose Columbia as their favorite. However, Busch was all about the rule of the one over the deliberations of the many, and their head brewer said, “Not Columbia. Willamette,” causing commercial hop farmers to abandon Columbia.

Fast forward several decades and the Indie Hop project, wanting to bring Columbia in from the cold, went searching for surviving plants. Hop farmer Gayle Goschie found some forgotten in her experimental patch … or so she thought! Turns out they weren’t Columbia but a new hop — great as an aroma hop, adding tropical fruit, lemon citrus, and even spearmint notes. They named it Meridian, and released it in 2011.

The Twins of Gemini is dry and, yet, impossible fruity. Tangerine and strawberry notes abound with lemony anis notes sitting on the top (from the Meridian?) brightening up the concoction. It’s a lovely little construction that, as far as we know, has little to actually do with duos, pairs, or the constellation Gemini, but we’re cool with it, not of two minds about that at all.

Bonus Beer of the Week (‘Cause your inner child saw us pull a Beer of the Week out of a hat, and they were, like, “Again! Again!”)

Duck-Rabbit Duck-Rabbator

Normally $16.99 / Now on Sale for $15.96
Doppelbock Style Lager

Duck-Rabbit Brewing Company in Farmville, NC dedicates itself to dark beers (a brewery after our hearts), so it’s interesting what they do with their Doppelbock.

Bock beers are sweet, dark lagers named after the north German town of Einbeck, where they were born, although the Doppelbock (”Double Bock”) — the heaviest of the bocks — was created 250+ miles south in Munich by the monks from the order of St. Francis of Paola (the “Paulaner monks”).

The Duck-Rabbator Doppelbock is a light and fruity Doppelbock. Unlike other Doppelbocks which push a dense darkness as far as they can, you’re in no risk of forgetting that this full-flavored brew is a lager. You do entertain other risks, though, as you definitely do not taste its 8.5% ABV.

Get the Duck-Rabbator cool but not cold to fully savor its malt dynamics.

Remember!

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