After all the excitement of beer festivals lately it was time to stay in relax, and frankly have more than a few beer free days, but by Thursday it felt logical to treat myself to a boilermaker.
For those playing a home a boilermaker is a beer accompanied by a nip of Whiskey. I've been know to have a few in my day, often at a place called 'Boilermaker House' which has sadly closed down. But my time there taught me what combinations work.
One of the combinations is a nice hoppy beer, and IPA is perfect, so searching in the fridge I menaged to search through all the gimmicky smoothies sours, to the IPA section, I had four different ones to choice from - three of them hazy and one a Triple IPA.
I would choose what I thought was a Triple IPA, I knew I needed something that would shine through, don't get me wrong I love a NEIPA but I was looking for something bigger and bolder. upon reading the can I discovered the 'Triple IPA' in the description was not strength but rather that is was using three hops - Cascade Cryo, Riwaka SubZero Hop Kief, and a brand-new hop, Krush.
The brewery was Urban Alley, from Melbourne in Australia, in fact not too far from where I'm drinking, maybe 2kms or so. The beer is called Cerberus, the mythical three headed dog who guards the entrance to the underworld, or maybe the chamber of secrets in Harry Potter.
Anyway with this light, a potentially punchy IPA I needed some interesting Whiskey - we contemplated something peated, but thought that might be overpowering so we took it back a step and selected a Rye Whiskey, again we keep it local, I distiller is Gospel, again from Melbourne, about 6-7km in the other direction.
So how was the combination? It worked really well, the IPA was not a big a punchy as I was originally thinking it might be, rather it was balanced and very very drinkable, the three hop combination meant that it didn't have a breakthrough hop profile falvour, but rather was more a general, refreshing, slightly fruity hit. The whiskey, well be rye it had a slightly peppery edge, but Gospel describe it like so, which I think sums it up well. It embodies classic rye flavours in an approachable soft and smooth way - an accessible rye with more character than you would expect.
And yes a Boilermaker is a fantastic way to enjoy a nice beer when you want to make it a little special, I mean you get to use two fancy glasses, and you get to experience waves of flavour as you shift between the beer and the whiskey. I always like to finish with the Whiskey though. There is nothing better than they lingering aftertaste, and the smell of the empty glass they whiskey has been in.
