Hop Stoopid Ale, Lagunitas Brewing Co., Petaluma, CA

Another Lagunitas review, and another great beer!

Hop Stoopid is the Lagunitas answer to super-ultra-hoppy beers such as the Dogfish Head 90 Minute or 120 Minute. While Dogfish does a remarkable job of making a highly hopped beer into something drinkable, there are many competitors who end up wasting excess hops on bitter beer. Lagunitas goes in a slightly different direction. Instead of using actual hops (or hop pellets), they use hop extract, which is essentially the desirable parts of the hop flower in a concentrated liquid form.

The result is very different than most other high-hop beers. The aroma is understated for a double IPA, and probably has less hop aroma than Harpoon IPA. But the flavor is much more pronounced. The hop bitterness is there, but there is also a notable sweetness, both of which conspire to hide the alcohol (8% ABV). The hop taste is most similar to a wet hop beer, like Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale (which I love). Well done and highly recommended!

Rating = 4.0 (edging towards 4.5...)

I'm surprised that hop extract is not more popular with home brewers. Or maybe my experience is centered on hop pellets.