Palate Mallet

Back East Palate Mallet
1 4-pack, $10.00, 8.6% ABV

Purchased at the brewery, Bloomfield

palateCan you be a viable and popular brewery in the northeast anymore without a DIPA? Probably not, but it appears that OEC in Oxford is going to try their best (and two months into their effort, they are succeeding.)

Of course, I’m certainly one of the most guilty parties when it comes to pimping DIPAs and DIPA-centric breweries. Hell, Beer’d, whom I love, is basically a DIPA factory. And of course New England has their Gandhi Bot. Even venerable Olde Burnside got into the DIPA game this summer (2014).

Think I’m crazy? Relic – Relic! brewed up a DIPA this summer!

Back East did really nice DIPA, which they labeled an IIPA a couple years ago. It was a brewery only limited release but since it was a DIPA, everyone pretty much loved it. So in 2014, they secured a hop contract for some [I was told once which hops were in here, but I forget and let’s not get all beer geeky here. Let’s just make it up... Simcoe, Zythos, Centennial and... how about some Citra] hops – and perhaps some help from fellow breweries to fill out the bill, and BOOM, the Hammer of the Gods struck and then we had Palate Mallet.

I’m curious what the difference between the Palate Mallet and the original Imperial IPA is. If any, really. The original was all American hops, but probably not four varieties, plus it was bottle conditioned, which this was not. Whatever.

thoI first had this beer the day it was first released at the brewery. I bought a growler. It was very good. I had no idea about their plans to can it, but as you can see, they canned it.

Back East says:

This is the first beer in the “Hammer of the Gods Series”. Forged with a solid, yet dry, malt foundation, and smacked with four types of brash American hops, Palate Mallet will whack your taste buds with loads of wholesome hop goodness.

If you don’t know, Back East has a whole Led Zeppelin thing going on and I suppose Norse mythology plays into that. Thor was a pretty rad god, as far as gods go. (That’s him, in plastic figurine form in that first picture. Thor wields a hammer, which is more or less like the mallet on the can’s design. I’m know what I’m doing. Leave me alone.)

It has always fascinated me that Marvel made Thor into a superhero. (After all, we all know what would happen to them if they made Mohammed a character.) Like, my man was a GOD, y’know? And who could ever defeat a GOD?

But furthermore, a large culture once believed that Thor was an honest to goodness god, right? But time passes and cultures change and Thor-flavored god shifted over to the “mythology” column. So we have Norse and Greek and Roman mythologies, and we know all about them. And they are often turned into “fun.”

thorSo if the Internet lasts another thousand years and this page is being read in the 3014 or so, can you please let my descendents know how I knew 2014 gods would also be shifted over into the mythological scrap heap? (I tend to think it’ll happen much sooner than that… like maybe in by 2500 or so.) Thanks.

Anyway, see this comic book here? In it, Thor battles an evangelical Christian guy named The Crusader. As if The Crusades were a bowl of cherries. I happened to come across it in my small collection when I bought comic books in the early 80’s. It may be my favorite comic of all time. Just look at this panel with a redneck talking about Thor. Fantastic.

The beer? The beer is very good. It’s a throwback, of sorts, back to the American IPA’s of yore (2011 or so) where pine and bitter dominated citrus and flowers. It hides the nearly 9% ABV very well and is quite smooth, despite the bittering hops and the strong pine notes. Sure, there’s some citrus in there, but not like some of the more “modern,” so to speak, DIPAs of Beer’d and NEBCO.

And you know what? That’s great. We need beers to exist that retain the hallmarks of those way-back days of 3 years ago.

Thanks, Back East.

Overall Rating: B+
Rating vs. Similar style: B

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