Unsessionable - Revolution Brewing Company

    Unsessionable is an Imperial (or Double) India Pale Ale brewed by Revolution Brewing Company in Chicago, Illinois. With 6 hop varieties and a high alcohol content, this beer nearly lives up to its name. You're going to want to make your best effort to challenge its name once you taste the brew, however.

    Unsessionable pours a golden-bronze color with a decent head topping it. This foam shows remarkable retention, and leaves a good amount of lacing once it does finally fade.

    The hop aromas in this one are undeniable. Scents such as tropical fruits, lemon, pine, and grassy notes meld together seamlessly, and represent the huge range of scents thats hops can lend to a brew. Sweet caramel malt scents lure you in to the first taste, even if the hoppy aromas might have made you hesitant to dive in.

     Unsessionable is extremely smooth, with a slight alcohol warmth that is pleasant on the tongue. The IIPA is medium bodied with a similar level of carbonation that effervesces the many hops scents and flavors. The alcohol content of 10% ABV is really the only reason you wouldn't want to session drink this beer!

He tried to session it, he failed.

    With the incredibly hoppy scent of this beer the super sweet taste you get at first sip can be a bit of a surprise. There's definitely the expected hops bitterness, but the malt backbone really keeps the astringency at bay. Hops flavors of juicy fruit, lemon, pine, candied orange peel, and more delight the mouth as the smooth beer is enjoyed. For a brew with so much going on, Unsessionale never gets overcomplicated on the tongue and strikes an amazing balance that is incredibly pleasant.

    This is the first specialty brew that Revolution has canned. Normally, one must visit their brewpub or taproom at their brewery to get a taste of their specialty ales, so I was extremely excited at the precedent of this one being canned. I can only hope that Revolution continues the trend, and releases some more amazing beers for distribution across the country!

    Imperial India Pale Ales can be intimidating due to their massive hops content. Personally, I find that IIPAs are actually much sweeter than IPAs, and are easier to drink as well. The high alcohol content of Unsessionable is part of what makes it great, though it will definitely shut down anyone trying to finish more than a couple cans in one sitting. If you see this golden can in your local store, by all means, pick it up! I cannot put into words how impressed I am with this beer!

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I Hardcore You - Brewdog/Mikkeller

    It appears as though I stumbled upon a pretty special brew with this one. I Hardcore You is a collaborative effort between Brewdog (Fraserburgh, Scotland) and Mikkeller (Copenhagen, Denmark). This Imperial India Pale Ale is a blend of Brewdog's Hardcore IPA, and Mikkeller's I Beat YoU. I somehow found a bottle at a local liquor store and picked it up on a recommendation of Brewdog by Rebecca Hellowell. I can't wait to see what a collaboration between two of Europe's better brewers (or so I'm told) is like!

    I Hardcore You pours an interesting dark caramel color with a slight orange tint. A small, thin head forms after pouring, but fades quickly.

    The Imperial IPA smells intriguingly hoppy. Fruity, floral hops aromas mingle with the more classic piney resinous scents. There is also a strong background of caramel and other sweet, British style malts.

    I Hardcore You has a medium to full mouthfeel with a low level of carbonation. The ale feels a bit oily, and lightly coats the mouth. There is a little bit of alcohol warmth to the beer, which has an alcohol content of 9.5% ABV.

    The collaborative ale tastes surprisingly malty when you consider that it is a blend of two very hoppy beers. Sweet and robust caramel and toffee malt flavors create a backdrop on which the hops flavors are highlighted. The many different hops used to brew this ale impart many different flavors to the ale. The flavors of tropical fruit are present, as well as more herbal, flowery flavors. There are also more traditional hops flavors such as pine and lemon rind in the beer. This mix really does a great job of showing off the spectrum of flavors that hops can lend to an ale.
 

    I imagine that this beer was named after a couple similar to Romeo and Juliet, only much cooler, that would say "I hardcore you" instead of "I love you", because they were just that hardcore. This couple likely listened to metal music while driving motorcycles through flaming hoops on their dates. The two were so wild that they would probably only kiss inside a cage of hungry tigers while wearing meatsuits. Then, as always seems to happen with such intense love, it's likely that the couple were forcibly separated when a gang of werewolves moved into the woods between their two homes. Of course the two probably fought their way through the hordes of lycanthropes with just their own hands and feet, but each would have sustained injuries in the process. Once the two finally met up, they likely committed suicide together, to avoid turning into werewolves themselves, by cutting off their own heads with an axe. They were pretty hardcore.

   After a bit more research, I found that this was a limited release beer that is no longer being brewed. My local liquor store had a few on the shelf even now though, so if the beer sounds interesting to you, you might get lucky and find a couple dust covered bottles, even here in the States. I'm impressed how well I Hardcore You showcases the many different flavors of hops. This is definitely a unique brew!

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