Trophy Brewing Co. “Oberlin Village”

Style: Double IPA
ABV: 7.2%

This week Nick is out of town for a wedding and I’m going solo on the NC beer of the week post. I didn’t have to look too hard as I’ve been saving this one in my fridge for a week or two for such an occasion. What I’ve stashed is “Oberlin Village” by Trophy Brewing Co. in Raleigh, NC. This beer was intriguingly labeled as a “modern DIPA” and I was curious to see what puts the “modern” in this historically labeled brew (check out the history behind Oberlin Village here). Trophy has several quality brews that we have enjoyed over the years but this will be the first time we (err…I guess its just me tonight) will be doing a formal review on one of their beers (or whatever degree of formality you lend to this blog). So let’s jump in….

Joe’s Take

“Oberlin Village” was enjoyed in my classic IPA glass and had an appearance that reminded me of the amber on the end of John Hammond’s cane in Jurassic Park (however, no mosquitos were inside of course). It was a slightly hazy pale amber color that seemed to glow in the sunlight. The DIPA started out with a nice fluffy white head that settled into a few wispy remnants a couple minutes after pouring.

Being a DIPA, the aroma was hop forward and featured bunches of dank musty hops and tropical fruit sweetness. If I closed my eyes while smelling the beer I could imagine that I was holding a few hop cones that I just rubbed between my hands to extract the oils. Underneath that hoppy goodness was a faint malt character in the form of caramel/biscuit sweetness that whiffed up between the blasts of volatile hop compounds.

The mouthfeel of “Oberlin Village” was medium to heavy and somewhat mouthcoating. There were pops of carbonation that seemed to fade after a second, allowing you to warm the beer on your tongue and get a bit more depth of flavor. To me the beer was slightly drying on swallowing, but hey that makes it easier to take another sip (also I may not have had enough water today).

The flavor of this beer was complex and maybe this where the modernity of the DIPA comes in to play. At first I was hit with a wallop of juicy tropical fruit, namely pineapple. Shortly after that the flavor seemed to meld into dank and slightly vegetal hops, but not a lot of bitterness. Backing the hop flavor was a decent portion of sweet caramel malt flavor that helped wash the hops away. The balance definitely leaned toward hoppy, but there was enough malt to keep it from tipping the scales. There was a ton of flavor in the beer and I found myself taking sip after sip to try and break down the complexity of the flavor profile. Maybe a hint of melon here, some floral characters there, definitely a brew to keep you guessing.

With all that complexity it may be difficult to pair with lighter foods and I would say you want something as equally pronounced in flavor. Maybe some bold full flavored, and dare I say spicy (although spice and hops don’t usually mix I would like to see that interaction here), tacos would stand up to the challenge. Drinkability of the beer is somewhat impacted by its robust flavor profile and the high ABV. For these reasons, I would probably limit this brew to one per session. However, I do see this going down very easily on a hot summer’s day.

Give it a try for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments. Cheers!