ABV: 9.5%

This week marks the start of Autumn and while pumpkin beers seem to currently be the rage, I find myself always picking up a 4-pack of Odell Brewing Company’s Mountain Standard Double Black IPA come this time of year. This beer is around for a brief time each Autumn (as it is Odell’s current seasonal release) right around when we are all about to set our clocks back to “Mountain Standard Time”, it is quite the catchy name if you ask me! In conjunction to it being a dark beer and it getting dark at 5 p.m. soon, the name is even more clever the more you think about it. As much as I dread summer ending each year, I do look forward to the release of this special gem!

https://instagram.com/p/7yZIdrkxnP

So I wouldn’t call myself a hop head by any means, but I am slowly weaning myself onto beers that have high alpha acid counts. By weaning, I mean by drinking Imperial IPAs and Black IPAs, such as Odell’s Mountain Standard. Black IPAs work for me because they have a nice bold malt background to back up the hoppiness. Mountain Standard does indeed have a very roasty malt backbone which is almost smoky in addition to quite a bit of happiness. The smell is very interesting, it is a bold combination of both sweet malty bread notes with a hint of earthiness from the aroma hops. It does also a nice flavor in your mouth in contrast with a lot of more hoppy beers that tend to leave a bitter linger on your tongue. The ABV, at 9.5% doesn’t really seem too astringent or strong either. Heck, I didn’t even know this beer was that hefty until doing my notes for this article. With that being said, I don’t think I would recommend cellaring this beer due to it’s high hop nature, even with a high alcohol content please do enjoy this beer fresh!

With Odell Brewing’s knockout portfolio, it is not a wonder that Mountain Standard ranks as one of my all time favorite black IPAs. Cheers!

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