MightyBrews

For Christmas this year, we received some generous gifts from our friends and clients: the cheer was flowing strong throughout the last week of December and first week of January. One of our favorite surprises was some bottles of homebrew from our good friends at MightyBytes up in Andersonville. Besides doing great design/media work, these guys are also avid brewers. As a home brewer myself, I share a common interest and was pretty stoked when they dropped off six bottles for us to try, 3 each of two different brews: Mighty Theo Pale Ale, and IPAddress. After getting the bottles nice and cold, our team had a mini-tasting of the brews. The opinions were positive across the board.

Mighty Theo (Dry-Hopped American Pale Ale)

• Recipe by Theo Daniels
• Brewed on October 2, 2011
• ABV: 5.0%
• IBU: 43
• Grains: 2-Row Brewers Malt (in the form of light liquid malt extract and malto dextrin), Caramel Malt 40L
• Hops: Chinook, Cascade (used during the boil, and added dry to secondary fermentation)
• Yeast: California Ale yeast

This brew poured a nice crisp copper color and had a nice big citrusy nose to it thanks to the dry-hopping (when dry hops are added to the beer as it sits in a fermentation tank at a steady temperature, they contribute mostly to the aroma of the beer). Sitting at an easy 5.0% ABV, the beer was very drinkable (“sessionable” in beerspeak). Due to the awesome presence of American hop varieties (America is known for its hops) the beer was very refreshing, full of bright citrus and pine flavors (classic American hop flavors), with a nice sweet backbone from the malts. While I wouldn’t say this was a “balanced” beer — and it’s not supposed to be — the malts certainly tempered the bitterness, making it finish strong. This was an excellent take on the classic American Pale Ale: smelled great, tasted great.

IPAddress (American India Pale Ale)

• Limited edition kit
• Hops featured: Palisade, Simcoe, Amarillo

We had less information to go on regarding this brew, but it was mighty tasty nonetheless. It was maltier than the Mighty Theo and, as an IPA, was also a little bit bigger in ABV and bitterness. Had some complementary pine and citrus notes to it, but wasn’t as strong on the nose as the Theo because it wasn’t dry-hopped. This tasted like a more “balanced” brew (sweet malts vs. bitter hops) even given the style. India Pale Ale as a style gets its name from early 17th century Britain, when shipments of ale bound for the Far East (hence “India”) were brewed with higher concentrations of hops (which impart both flavor and act as a vital preservative) to help preserve taste and prevent the ale from being ruined by the time it got to its destination.

Personally I liked the Theo better for its bright nose and taste than I did this beer, but others in the office preferred this maltier, more balanced ale. Another observation I had regarding IPAddress is that it had a subtle wheat flavor to it that made me wonder about what yeast was used during fermentation. Or maybe it was just my imagination.

Thanks, MightyBytes!

If you’ve had either of these two beers, we’d love to hear your opinions. Chances are the circle of people who have is quite small, but hopefully we can get some discussion going. My hat’s off to the guys at MightyBytes for brewing some great suds and defying the “smells and tastes like home brew” stereotype with these two beers. It’s obvious that they were crafted with great attention to detail. Learn more about all of MightyBytes brews here.

Coming Soon

I’m also excited to announce that later in the year (early Spring, probably) we’ll be unveiling the first of our own Headstand Homebrews; I’m working on the inaugural recipe right now. Getcha popcorn ready!