21st Amendment Hop Crisis

The craft can frenzy continues! This time, 21st Amendment Brewery ups the ante and releases their newest entry into the market, Hop Crisis Oak-Aged Imperial IPA. At 9.7% ABV, this is not a beer to consume in mass quantities.

Hops Used in the Crisis: Columbus, Centennial, Cascade (bittering); Simcoe, Ahtanum, Amarillo, Cascade (dry hops)



It pours a super clear amber with a sticky, slightly off-white head. Bringing the glass anywhere near your face and you get smacked with the hoppy aromas. The Simcoe hops are the most obvious but the Amarillo are in there as well. Take a sip and its malty and full-bodied. There's a good deal of bitterness up front but that quickly gets balanced out by the malt, only to have the hops kick back in on the back end. No overt oak character, instead it sits slightly muted in the background. On top of all of that, there is little to no alcohol warmth which makes for a fairly dangerous beer.

I also really enjoyed how I received the sample of this beer. As you can see in the first photo, whole-leaf hops were used to help protect the can during shipment. Its the little geeky beer things that keep me going.

Hop Crisis is the second in 21A's "Insurrection Series", the first being Monk's Blood. This beer is available now in the following states: CA, OR, WA, AK, ID, MN, OH, MA, NY, NJ, DC, MD, PA, VA and GA.