Lovemaking: Pale Ale Edition

If you’ve been following the blog long you’ve heard the story about Super Dave and his torrid love affair with “the Czar”.  During this affair, Bridgeport’s The Hop Czar was Dave’s exclusive beer of choice.  Any conversation would almost immediately end with, “It’s not the Czar though”.  I couldn’t understand how a man could get wrapped up that tightly with a single beer.  I was having a great time with a different brew every time.  I rarely bought the same beer within short periods of time.  I was living it up in the craft beer bachelor life while Dave was locked down to his one love.  What was he thinking?  I could never figure it out.  Well until now.

The first “date” that started my own torrid beer love affair was at The Flying Saucer.  We went down to check out the highly touted Hop Slam but wanted to take advantage of the Pint Night specials.  I’d seen New Belgium had recently released their seasonal Dig, I’d passed it on the store shelves in favor of more exotic offerings.  Our paths remained separate until that night at The Saucer.  “It’s on special?  Sure I’ll take a pint”.  That was the beginning.

That night New Belgium’s Dig was the star of the show.  Sure, Hop Slam was awesome in it’s own right but Dig stole the show.  Bright citrus character, lemon dancing on the palate, a sweet fruity mango character, I immediately fell in love.  This is unlike anything I had tried before.  The malt character provided the perfect background to this outstanding hop character.  Foreign to my taste buds were these exquisite hops.  At times the Centennial hop provides a lemony citrusy delight, but never had this lemon character been accompanied by such a delightful fruity presence.  I’m in love!

Over the course of a couple of weeks my love affair strengthened and I began to drink Dig instead of other more exotic brews.  This is a pale ale no less.  In the past I’ve ignorantly passed on pale ales feeling they were inferior to the much bigger IPAs.  How could a 5%er hold up to the 7% ABVs of my favorite IPAs?  What I failed to realize is pale ales give the hop character room to breathe and flourish.  Without the big ABV and high bitterness levels of an IPA, the hops in a pale are free to roam.  How could I have been so closed minded?  But now nothing can come in between me and my beloved.

The specialness began to wear off of the Dig.  It began to lose its brightness and transformed into a shell of itself.  Today the flavors are moving towards darker version of the previous qualities.  It is still exceptional but not what it once was.  The lemon and mango are moving into a darker grapefruit character.  It is a lot like tasting a bit of sweet grapefruit and getting a piece of the skin with it.  The malt character is becoming more prominent and is a toasted bread character lingering further into the finish as it ages.

What was I to do?  How could I see another brew after this intense affair?  Well I did what any self respecting beer geek would do, I started another affair.  What could possibly take Dig’s place?  Stay tuned and I’ll let you know.  A hint?  It’s brand new and got all of it’s hop glory intact. 

Cheers!