HopDevil Ale (Victory Brewing Company - Downingtown, PA)

This is beer is straight up dangerous.

Dangerous like that sultry siren that cajoles you into taking your pants off in public, or that $100 your buddy just threw down if you toss that trash can at the mailbox. (We have no experience with any of the above, we swear.)

This is one of the most aromatic beers you will ever drink; you can smell it coming from across the room. The smell is so hoppy and grainy that it has the opportunity to drown out the beer if it was anything less than an IPA.

Then you take a taste.

A firing squad of hops draws their uzis and induces a bloodbath on the palette. This is the Brian DePalma film of hoppy IPAs. The spicy, citrusy hop bonanza temporarily stings and numbs the taste buds before giving way to a complex, organic, mellow brew. Any maltiness or fruitiness within the beer is completely lost in the maze of hops. It finishes sweet, like a cordial “Thank You” for putting up with a noisy neighbor’s party.

Clearly, Victory aptly named this beer. There’s absolutely no other way to describe this beer than a raging inferno of hops, and we understand why folks get all hopped up over it. At 6.7% APV, please drink responsibly - or with a friend.

We’ve tried a great many beers in our lifetime, and this is the hoppiest of them all.

That makes us quite ... hoppy.

Rating: 4 pints