{"id":1118,"date":"2010-12-04T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T11:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1118"},"modified":"2011-03-02T15:20:04","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T02:20:04","slug":"croucher-october-ipa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/04\/croucher-october-ipa\/","title":{"rendered":"Croucher ‘October’ IPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Croucher<\/a>
Diary II entry #39, Croucher 'October' IPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This totally managed to stump a few people and cause a minor nerd-riot, it did. We had two kegs of it at work, and the first went on through a Hopinator crammed full of mandarins1<\/sup> — \u00e0 la the rather-successful batch of fruited-up Twisted Hop IPA<\/a> we’d previously done.<\/p>\n

When it was all naked and alone on a regular tap, though, it was totally different. Without the citrus (elements of which you’d ordinarily expect<\/em> in a big IPA), its massively yeasty<\/em> self was uncovered. The Overboss just assumed the as-yet-unlabelled tap held a wheat beer from Emerson’s Brewers’ Reserve series (which was<\/em> due to go on soon), and one Proper Beer Nerd absolutely insisted that it was Croucher’s Hef<\/em> (also a wheat, perhaps obviously) instead. A quick double-check of the keg fridge assured us against the first possibility, and a side-by-side tasting eliminated the second. I’d been standing there pointing out that none of us had ever had a wheat beer with this level of bitterness<\/em> before, but was also happy to indulge in a little bit of Science, just to be sure.<\/p>\n

What we have, instead, is a very different<\/em> type of Big IPA. And I’m quite fond of very different<\/em>, sometimes. The fruit flavours in here, to me, were all rockmelony and summery and ‘uppy’ in that barely-definable way. The funky yeastiness was surprising, but people have been IPA-ifying big Belgian tripels for a while now, so just think of this as taking a run at that same idea from the other direction, perhaps.<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Croucher ‘October’ IPA 4\/12\/10 guest @ MH. 7.5% We had this Hopinated a few weeks ago, on mandarins (or tangerines; there was some dispute, for which I — uncharacteristically, but with good reason — absented myself). It was a pretty tasty + worthy echo of Twisted Hop IPA — and this has the same light uppy fruit side all on its own, too (though obviously the oily bitterness isn’t there \/ as big). The big fruit note, though, is rockmelon. In a nice way. The Dior of beer, says Amelia, since it goes so well with Natalie’s new perfume. The body is surprisingly light, for its strength. Quite a different Big IPA; more summery.<\/p>\n

\n

1: Actually, this beer caused two<\/em> near nerd-riots. The first<\/em> centered on just whether the things in the Hopinator were mandarins, or tangerines. As my Diary<\/em> entry notes, I largely absented myself from that argument — an unusual move, for me, but a running joke among my friends (very much<\/em> of the “funny because it’s true” kind) is that I know basically nothing about food. I had a niggling suspicion, though, that the argument was poorly-stated; I thought there wasn’t<\/em> a difference. In the non-embarrassing safety of my laptop on my break, I checked. And was alarmed to find myself nearly<\/em> right; fighting about the difference between a tangerine and a mandarin is like fighting over the difference between a greyhound and a dog<\/em>. Mandarin<\/a> is a higher-level term — they come in many varieites (including tangerine and satsuma).<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This totally managed to stump a few people and cause a minor nerd-riot, it did. We had two kegs of it at work, and the first went on through a Hopinator crammed full of mandarins1 — \u00e0 la the rather-successful batch of fruited-up Twisted Hop IPA we’d previously done. When it was all naked and … Continue reading Croucher ‘October’ IPA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,14,12],"class_list":["post-1118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-pale-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2115,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/19\/croucher-patriot\/","url_meta":{"origin":1118,"position":0},"title":"Croucher ‘Patriot’","author":"Phil","date":"March 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So here we are again with the 'Black IPA', which I'll just go with calling it for now (the brewery themselves went with 'American Black Ale') and which it seems is cementing itself as quite the trend -- though to take a stab at for how long would be patently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher 'Patriot', my first proper pint of","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Patriot-first-proper-pint-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1008,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/30\/croucher-pale-ale-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1118,"position":1},"title":"Croucher Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday brought an end to my Hamilton Expedition, but did compensate me with a lovely drive home down State Highway 4 -- I decided I'd done SH1 too often, so thought I'd go around the other side of the Lake. And when I got home, I had a house full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pale-Ale-500ml-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1239,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/29\/tuatara-porter-doubly-modified-croucher-mrs-claus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1118,"position":2},"title":"Tuatara Porter (doubly modified) & Croucher ‘Mrs. Claus’","author":"Phil","date":"December 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"There some beers that you want to like, but you just can't. Both of these were near-misses, for me, so I lessened their Diary-polluting effect by consolidating them into one entry. Pinot and porter are usually a great match -- Hallertau do a wonderfully-mad 'Porter Noir' with barrels home to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tuatara Porter (with pinot and cherries) and Croucher 'Mrs Claus'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tuatara-Porter-with-pinot-and-cherries-and-Croucher-Mrs-Claus-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/08\/28\/croucher-pale-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1118,"position":3},"title":"Croucher Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"August 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Croucher Pale Ale, from Rotorua, but with none of that city's usual aromatic downsides. An after-work drink, and a pretty damn good one. It's a little bit Little-Creatures-esque, what with being a pale ale, but not being a thwack in the head with a fistful of hops. More just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pale-Ale-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":661,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/01\/13\/croucher-pilsner\/","url_meta":{"origin":1118,"position":4},"title":"Croucher Pilsner","author":"Phil","date":"January 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We'd been lucky enough to have this and the Pale (which is further back in the Diaries) on tap at work once, so I already knew I was a fan of this, and it seemed like the perfect consolatory beer after a bit of a Day. It's lovely, really. (They\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pilsner","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pilsner-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4513,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/07\/06\/left-coast-the-wedge\/","url_meta":{"origin":1118,"position":5},"title":"Left Coast ‘The Wedge’","author":"Phil","date":"July 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It appears I might have \"Black IPA\" on the brain. Or hoppy porter, at least \u2014 the question of whether the one is the other is an enjoyable piece of modern beer taxonomy for me to ponder as I have a nice glass of something-dark on a wintery evening. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Left Coast 'The Wedge'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Left-Coast-The-Wedge-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1692,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118\/revisions\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}