While grilling season draws to a close I still have some more beers that were sent to me by the brewer (or their PR people) for my comment. What else can I do but to drop some steaks on the grill and pop open another can! Since I don’t get to go out much and cover beer events, this is my best compensation for my work.
Today’s sampling is Two Brothers Outlaw 2.0, a re-imagining of their year-round India Pale Ale. The original Outlaw appeared in the Brothers’ lineup in 2009. It was then described as using two new hop varieties, and was their first beer to be packaged in cans. This year, they reformulated the recipe, with an end-of-boil hop addition, and a bill of Centennial Chinook, Cascade, Mt. Hood and Amarillo hops.
Out of the can, the beer shows a white puffy head over a slightly darker than average Amber India Pale Ale body.
The nose is not that strong in the hop department. Mainly a little bit of citrus or stone fruit and just a slight tinge of pine in this case.
The beer retains a lot more maltiness, almost a little bit sweet. There’s still a nice some Amber malt and a bit of stickiness to it. A good balance between malt and hops. This is not a hophead’s roof of the mouth burner, but it’s nicely drinkable, even if it is 6.3% alcohol by volume.
As it turns out, the alcohol does make itself known before I’m done with my serving. It is still nice that a single beer can still fill one with some extra cheer, although I also worry that my ability to handle alcohol might be lagging with age.
