I was going to wait on this one. Lagunitas Brewing Co. had sent me a bottle of “W”, their India Pale Ale relabeled to celebrate the Cubs winning the World Series. I thought it would be most appropriate to share this with my family on Thanksgiving, since my Dad is the real Cubs fan in the family. But he said to go ahead and have it, since he needs to keep a closer eye on his blood sugar. Besides. If I write about it any later, this might no longer be available.
While you’ve seen pictures of this beer all around Chicago, and had trouble finding it, take heart: this is just Lagunitas’ India Pale Ale with a slight change in the number and colors of the letters on the label. The “W” labels are available only at the Chicago taphouse, and as random inserts in sixpacks of their regularly-labeled IPA.
This beer pours with a spongy IPA head over the usual copper colored body. The smell is still fresh less than two weeks from the bottling date, with emphasis on pine resin and a little note of mint.
The taste is just bursting with different hop varieties, all pretty darn fresh. There’s some green pine needles, citrus fruit, and grapefruit, with a bit of English earthy hop for good measure. Toasty malts hang in for backup, but they still play second fiddle to the California-by-way-of-India Pale Ale on display here.
