Blue Dot is better than Pliny.

[cjb]

...at least, according to a blind tasting among a few of my friends

I did an IPA tasting the other night with 4 guys; 3 of us are hoppy beer fans, the 4th prefers maltier beers, so while it was interesting to see his rankings I take them with a grain of salt. We did two rounds of 3 beers each, and amongst the three hopheads ended up with pretty much unanimous rankings as follows:

Round 1:
1. Hair of the Dog Blue Dot - I knew this was one of my favorites, but was a bit shocked when it beat out Pliny. Seemed to have a bit more/fresher hop aroma and flavor...hard to put a finger on it, but we all agreed it was the best.
2. RR Pliny the Elder - still delicious, of course, but just didn't get the huge hoppy nose/flavor I expected. Bottle was less than a month old (per the date on the label) and bought the same day as the Blue Dot, so can't blame freshness. I did notice that this is a beer that really opens up as it warms, and has a distinctive sort of lingering mid-palate sweet/hoppy flavor that grows on you through the pint. We also agreed that the Pliny was very well balanced (more so than the Blue Dot).
3. Fire Mountain Bogart NW IPA - a bit of a dark horse here; my brother had tried it and liked it so we threw in the bomber he had just bought. Ended up being very different from the other two - a shade darker, much more caramelly sweetness in both the nose and flavor. Liked it okay, but didn't stand up to the others in this group.

Round 2:
1. Stone Ruination - My first time trying this, and it's really tasty.
2. Pelican India Pelican Ale - Very, very close 2nd to the Stone - we had a hard time deciding between the two. Very similar taste despite the different appearance (Stone really hazy, Pelican crystal clear), but decided the Stone had a bit more aroma.
3. DFH 90 minute - Pretty underwhelming, really. The biggest beer here...but needs more hops to balance out the syrupy sweetness.

It was really instructive to line these all up next to each other and see just how different each one is. I had a few more (Ninkasi Tricerahops, Laurelwood Workhorse, Fort George Vortex etc.) that I'll have to save for a later date/rematch...I already got a hangover as it was

FWIW, the fourth guy's rankings were pretty much the opposite, so I guess it all depends on what you're looking for. As for my part, I'll still be picking up Pliny whenever I can find it, but I'm not sure it's the holy grail of IPAs that the hype machine has made it out to be. Sometimes I think the combination of a great beer/hype/scarcity builds the market into a frenzy (e.g. Westvleteren?).

Speaking of which: we almost did a side-by-side of Westvleteren 12 and St. Bernardus 12, but that one will have to wait for another day as well. Stay tuned...

 

[Haputanlas]

Interesting, I haven't had blue dot yet. I'll have to give it a try.

Also, it's not a good idea to pair a dry bitter beer with a malty beer (Ruination vs. 90 Minute). They're almost a completely different style (Rather than just being clumped under the IPA umbrella).

 

[frydogbrews]

yeah, ruination would mess you all up if you tried to follow with 90.
i still agree with your assessment of 90 minute though.
toss in an o'fallon 5 day IPA and a lagunitas maximus and you have yourself a competition.

 

[bovineblitz]

Nice tasting, I bet you felt pretty good after that

The 90min is pretty much a different style than any of the other beers in the list, it's a malty double IPA. This isn't official categorization but I think of stuff like Ruination and Pliny as "big standard hope skewed" IPAs whereas double IPA is much more of malty balanced beer with big hop flavor.

When I was first getting into hoppier beers my introduction was the maltier doubles, nowadays I find myself preferring IPAs. I did a similar tasting to this and included Dogfish Squall which seemed out of place next to beers such as Mojo and Ithaca Flower Power (the undisputed winner).

 

[cjb]

Yeah, I agree that the 90min was out of place in this group - though to be fair, that's exactly the kind of thing that we wanted to find out by doing the tasting. (It does call itself a "Double IPA" after all, just like the others). It's much more the flavor profile of a barley wine versus what I expect from a West Coast big/double IPA. Same goes for the Fire Mountain - I think I would have liked it more in a different setting (maybe up against hoppy reds/IRAs).

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

Never had Blue Dot, I'll have to look around for it. IMO, a lot of things are better than Pliny. Blind Pig being one of them. I remember when I first had Pliny it had an amazing Aroma, & a really pleasent hop flavor. For me, it has become a bit harsh over the last couple of years. It just doesn't seem to be as well rounded as it used to be.

 

[944play]

Problem with this style of beer is that you're basically going to be ranking them in order of freshness. The Westy v. St. Bernardus sounds like a more interesting comparison to me.

 

[frydogbrews]

an american IIPA does not have to have all that malty flavor. they can still punch you in the crotch with hop flavor. people just tend to go with the pansy ass english style.

i don't care for malty IIPA's, but they are great with two years of age if you call them barleywine!!!