REVIEW: New Albanian Hoptimus

I have no idea what I'm getting into with this one. I have only very recently become aware of New Albanian Brewing Company through seeing their bombers at the liquor store. I had never even heard of them, let alone tried any of their beers. New Albany, Indiana was the "big city" nearest to where I went to college. New Albany was where you went if you wanted to go to a halfway decent movie theater, or a chain restaurant, or Bass Pro Shop. Yes, Hanover College is in the middle of nowhere. It's a shame that I couldn't get any of New Albany's brews at Hanover Package and Liquor. The craft beer options I had while at college were pretty limited. Some Upland, some Bell's and not much else. Anyways, when I was getting beers to review for the blog I figured it was time to give new Albanian a shot. To the beer!

From the label:

Living vicariously through others is a sad compromise meant only for rank amateurs and subpar international lagers. Rather, we all might profit from the principled example of Hoptimus, which lives vivaciously, audaciously and capriciously through itself. With a snarky hop character that is blatantly unrepentant, Hoptimus ensures that meek palates surely will not inherit the earth.

Hoptimus pours a very pretty reddish copper color with towering white head that leaves generous lacing down the sides of the glass. There are quite a bit of particulates of yeast floating in the beer.

The aroma is mostly one of spicy herbal hops with some bready, biscuity malt undertones.

This beer has a pretty nice medium body with some great creaminess. The first and pretty much only flavor you get from this beer is big time hop spiciness. It's almost peppery. There's no mention of it anywhere on the label, but I would swear that this beer was brewed with generous amounts of rye. Seriously, the spice in this beer is intense, almost overpowering. The beer finishes pretty clean but that 100 IBUs lingers on. There just isn't enough malt to balance out the hop presence. And it's an odd hop presence. It's all the bitter, herbal, almost slightly medicinal hops. None of the citrusy, floral, piney hops that you see in most IPAs. Hoptimus seems like an imperial English style IPA. There is a slight fruitiness that becomes apparent as the beer warms. I didn't love this beer. There just wasn't enough there to stand up to or contrast the massive spicy hop bitterness. It was worth trying out, but there are just better IPAs for my money.