Rubber Soul Brewing Pogo Double IPA
Pogo Double IPA served two functions when it came my way. Firstly, and primarily, it served as an excellent introduction to Rubber Soul Brewing out of Salisbury, MD — founded by a former brewer of ppalachian Brewing Company and Dogfish Head.
Secondly, it was packaged in a Crowler™ — essentially and aluminum, recyclable growler — and brought to me via a very nice coworker. Not having messed around with one of these, by first impression included the words, “damn, that’s a big can of beer.” But this isn’t a review of the device, let’s focus on the 9% ABV and 100 IBU beast within.
As you can imagine, this is a big beer with loads of unadulterated hoppy goodness. Pogo Double IPA may include Citra hops in its recipe, but this is about as old school a beer as I’ve encountered in a while. It’s got a good bit of fruitiness but it’s not in that tropical, new school mentality. This brew is driving by pine, grapefruit and malt — delivered in as balanced a profile as one would expect for a big IPA such as this.
Appearance
The beer pours a dark, rusty amber in color with a dense cap of beige foam with a persistent head.
Aroma
Loads of pine, grapefruit, herbal hop notes, soft pepper, bread and a hint of alcohol. The brew smells pretty darn good.
Taste
As stated above, this brew has an old school imperial IPA flavor. You’re going to find plenty of big piney notes, grapefruit, a hint of tangerine, a peppery tingle, light caramel and bread. There’s a bit of tropical fruit lingering behind the primary pine and grapefruit character. A moderate to high level of hop bitterness is matched by an equal amount of late-forming malt sweetness. The beer finishes clean with a warming trait.
Overall
I really liked Pogo Double IPA. It reminded me of the big, hoppy brews of craft beer past. There may be a newfangled hop variety in the mix, but it doesn’t dominate the way many newly released IPAs allow. Now, if we can only get Rubber Soul to start shipping into Virginia, I’d be a happy camper.
Rating: 4/5
