Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye Ale

[Triple Freak]

22 oz. brown bomber bottle. Pours out a deep garnet color with green tints in it, probably from the hops. Smells of hops right away, with a background of malts. Piney, resinous qualities to it as well. Tastes ok, but the hops are way overdone in this batch. They simply overwhelm any chances of the malts showing through. Stiff, solid tan colored head at first, but quickly fades to a ring of bubbles around the rim of the glass. Lacing galore in this beer. Not a well done beer, because it is so unbalanced. Nice to try once, I guess.

[beachscrat]

My brother from San Diego sent me one of these, and I got to say I disagree with you Tripple Freak.

I thought it was well balanced with a nice rye spicey backbone mixed with an excellent pungent hop aroma and probably the best head I have seen on a beer yet. Almost meringue-like.

One of the best American pales I've tried.

[gfoster]

I'll second that, hop rod rye is an awesome beer. I don't normally go for hoppy APA's and I find this one pleasantly spicy and well balanced. It's on the "will buy again anytime I see it" list and I'm going to brew up a five gallon clone batch of it in a month or two.

Damned fine beer.

-- Gary F.

[ipaguy]

Awesome example of a very well-made Rye IPA, albeit incorporating more darker malts than the norm, hopped to West Coast standards. It has a stronger malt backbone than many other West Coast IPA's, but that is what BR is known for. I've never had a bad bottle of this stuff and drink it regularly. A go-to beer for West Coast hopheads.

[SunkenBier]

I found this one on tap. We sampled 15 beers at the brewery and this one was the nicest. It had a nice rye taste which fit well with the ale style. I did not find it overly hoppy.

[2DogAle]

I tried HRR and started drinking regularly about a month ago. I found it to be very smooth and well balanced for such a over the top hopped beer. The flavor of the rye and bitterness of the hops was balanced by a huge malt bill. I think you may have had a green batch or something like that.

Try it again.

Rob