Fat Ten-Er #8

Fat Ten-er # 8 (Equinox IPA)
Gifted from my man Jay , 6.8% ABV

IMG_8450Do you know why kids are rad? Kids are rad because they become obsessed with random things for fleeting amounts of time. I’m not talking about stuff like “Frozen” or “dinosaurs,” I’m talking about the specific things little kids LOVE for maybe 3 months, tops.

In the case of my three-year-old, he decided one day that the octopus is his favorite animal. And when a little kid has a favorite animal, you better recognize. Because no other animal exists once he gets a favorite.

And that’s rad.

When he learned to draw (such as it is), the only thing he drew for the entire summer of 2014 was octopi. They sometimes wore hats, but they always wore a smile – because, “DIS OCTOpus is HA-ppy!” I don’t think Calvin could imagine an unhappy octopus.

When we ask him why he loves them so much, his best answer is simply, “because I do.” Indeed.

And so, he has an octopus on his placemat. He has an octopus backpack (fo’ reals.) He loves any show that features octopi – from NOVA to The Wild Kratts to various cartoons. Hell, he’s even down with Dr. Octopus from Spiderman, but laments that he is, unfortunately, a bad guy.

Though he was never hip to Henry the Octopus on the Wiggles because… well, because my kid is cool.

As this was NEBCO’s eighth Fat Ten-Er effort, of course I thought of octopi and their eight legs. I guess beers display “lacing” and not “legs” like wine, but whatever. The # 8 had some great legs.

NEBCO Says:

IPA brewed with a whole lot of Equinox hops.

MySonIsAGeniusI’m not sure I ever had Equinox before; certainly not in abundance or a single hop effort. It’s delicious, especially in the capable brewing hands of the boys at NEBCO. No pine or bitter in this hop at all; all citrus and floral with a bit of earthiness to keep it grounded, though the NEBCO malt bill is always perfectly on point to provide any needed smoothing of the hoppy too-muchness.

So there you have it – another nearly perfect IPA from NEBCO. Everyone loves the IPA’s these days, right? I know I do… But I can’t pretend that’s always been the case – or always will be.

Sure, you may have chuckled at my son’s young cephalopod love, but you – yes, you. Go look in the mirror. Sure you love hop bombs today, but how long has that been the case? Did you get your first few tastes of GOOD sours this summer (2014) and find yourself wishing there were more available? Hmmmm?

That’s the thing. NEBCO doesn’t even WANT to specialize in hop bombs. (Note: I just made that up.) They want to branch out and do other types of beers with far less focus on the hops. (Note: I base this on recent forays into saisons and their fest bier, nothing more.)

And so should you. My son is three. You’re most likely 25-55. Calvin has an excuse for his weird obsession, but you don’t. You’re an adult, so stop lining up for 2 hours for a hoppy NEBCO “rarity,” especially if it’s just for a stupid mark on your untappd account. Try their other stuff for Christ’s sake. It’s ALL good.

If I had eight arms with which to hold the eight best beers in the state, you can bet I’d have at least three NEBCO’s. But hell, I’d be an octopus and I’d have all those suckers so I wouldn’t be limited to just eight. More like 28.

And that would be rad too.

Overall Rating: A-
Rating vs. Similar style: n/a

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