Page 33 - the NOISE October 2015

BY GARY KURTZ
“Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create — this is man.”
− John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Maybe it’s just me, but I love bitter things. Black coffee, dark chocolate, tonic water: these are my jam. I think part of this love has to do with not drinking soda. When one’s tastebuds aren’t constantly overwhelmed by sweetness, one can appreciate other flavors, like bitterness. So it should come as no surprise to you that I love black IPAs. If you made me pick a favorite style of beer, I would pick black IPA. Never had a black IPA? I feel sorry for you. Your poor taste buds. Imagine this: a big, bold, double IPA loaded with hops, but also loaded with enough dark roasted malts to turn the color from golden amber to black! Doesn’t that sound fantastic? Kind of like a big, dark, bitter imperial porter so loaded with hops that if you drank it cold enough, you’d swear it was an IPA. Sounds delicious, right? Of course it does. We’ll get to the beer in a minute. First, however, let’s talk about IBUs.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Something like, “What is this mysterious IBU of which you speak, O’ Captain, My Captain?” I’m so glad you asked. IBU stands for International Bitterness Unit and it is a way of measuring how bitter a beer actually is, not how bitter it tastes. An IBU can be defined as one milligram of iso-alpha acid (the thing that makes hops so bitter and delicious) per liter of beer, or one part per million (ppm). There are two main ways to measure IBUs. The first way is to break out your spectrophotometer and measure the beers absorbance of light at the 275nm wavelength. Don’t have a spectrophotometer? Yeah, me neither. Thankfully, we’re not out of luck. IBUs can also be roughly calculated by multiplying the weight of hops used in ounces, the concentration of alpha acids in those hops, the volume of the final batch of beer in gallons, and the utilization percent of the hops (how much acid is actually extractable). Take this total and multiply by 1.34 to arrive at IBUs in parts per million. Simple. Now, on to the beer!
Lost Highway Imperial Black IPA by Mother Road Brewing may be my favorite beer in Flagstaff. Clocking in at 8% alcohol, it easily earns the Imperial title. The 100 IBUs beautifully balance the backbone of Black Patent Malt. In the glass, the beer is black. Seriously black. To steal a phrase from the Wine Monk, “dark as the hearts of men.” Aromas of strongly brewed dark roasted coffee and dark chocolate hit hard and quick up front, but underneath these heavy hitters are wonderful notes of black fruit and dried fruit that are subtle and by no means overwhelming. The head is thin and not all that much lighter than the beer. Think more crema on a fresh pulled shot of espresso than foam on a beer. Once you get done looking at it and smelling it and actually take a sip — which I admit is sometimes hard to do
— you get all of those wonderful coffee and chocolate flavors on the palate. But you also get a nice big hit of bittering hops, which are mainly around for flavor and not so much for aroma. But oh my, do they do the trick!
At times, Lost Highway doesn’t feel so much like drinking a beer, but like having a glass of black iced coffee. While it’s available in bottles, I highly recommend drinking this beer from a tap. The main reason for this is that bottles stored in the refrigerator tend to be far colder than this beer should be for drinking. If you do go with the bottles, pull one out of the fridge about 15 minutes before you start to drink it. You can thank me later.
Mother Road brewery sits on the side of the original alignment of Steinbeck’s mother road, Route 66, which today means that it is on Mike’s Pike Street in Flagstaff. Conveniently for those of us who visit breweries around mealtimes, they share their building with Pizzicletta. If you’ve never been to a taproom that sits dead center of a production brewery, I would highly recommend you swing by for a pint. There’s something magical about drinking a beer while chatting with the production crew as they brew up another batch of the beer you’re drinking.
| Gary Kurtz wishes he has spectrophotometer on hand. gtkurtz@gmail.com
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