The Spring Beer Scabs: # 8 Aprihop vs # 9 Mendocino Bock

      After the dreadful Blue moon and Shirner I'm pretty excited about these scabs.  We have Dogfish Head's Aprihop and Mendocino Spring Bock.  Aprihop was good last year and was in the final eight, Mendocino made quite a good Winter Beer, so this should be good.  They both are an identical amber.  Aprihop, of course, has a big apricot, caramel and herb nose.  Mendo Bock has nice caramels and lots of citrus.  Aprihop is big on the herb, real big, I get the apricot a bit , but the herb is a bit much.  We'll see if it calms down a bit.  Mendo Bock is really big with caramel, fruit, honey and citrus.  A nice bock indeed.  Aprihop does get better as the massive herb subsides and the fruits and caramels come out.  Still the Mendo is a very complete beer, I don't know that Aprihop can compete.  I drink them down to the last sip and Mendo is the clear winner.  But, Aprihop is an interesting beer worth a try if you like your apricots.  That brings the first round to an end, next we set up the brackets for the exciting second round.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A.

Dogfish Head, out of Milton, Delaware, brings one of their premium beers the 90 Minute Imperial I.P.A. This stuff pours out a nice light amber color. It has a strong bitter hop that overwhelms the nose, and only reveals a faint glance at the malts beneath. Much to my surprise the opposite is true when it first hits the palate. The malts totally dominate up front bringing out a lovely mellow caramel sweetness. Then the hops come to the forefront, followed by a very balanced finish. This beer really brings it with big flavors and a big punch, 9% ABV. I would recommend it highly, but it is expensive, about 3 bucks a 12 ounce bottle. Make it a pint I'd be happier. Go Blue Hens, One of the gayest sounding college mascots ever.

Round 2: #1 Aprihop vs #3 Spring Buck

The last of our second round matches features #1 seed Dogfish Head Aprihop and #3 seed Dominion Spring Buck. These are two heavy hitters both with flavor and alcohol, 7% and 7.8% respectively. The palate cleanser will be mini brown sugar meat loaf muffins. And we're off. Aprihop jumps to the lead with it apricotty , very hoppy, strong, crisp yummy-ness. But wait, there must be a pause to enjoy some savory meatloaf. Spring Buck comes on strong with it's bold honey -tea flavors, balanced hops and power. Meatloaf tastes better when you make it in different shapes. Let's sprint to the finish line.

Aprihop is very good, but the strong hop tends to overwhelm the sweetness of the apricot. Buck has no real weakness to me, but I could see how some may not like this flavor profile. Sip for sip the Aprihop overwhelms the Buck with it's massive hops, but I expected that. I'd rather have the delicate balance of the Buck. If you poured these beers together the results would be very good. This Spring Buck is leaving the glass quickly it's time to end this thing. Just a touch more meatloaf. And it's over, Spring buck pulls away, it's so well balanced and a pleasure to drink. But man, that Aprihop is good. A really unique IPA worthy of a try. Good to the last drop, Spring Buck moves on to the flavorful four to face upstart, Sam Adam's Irish Red.

Dogfish Head

Dominion

#1 Aprihop vs #8 Vinyl

In our first look at a #1 seed, it's Aprihop versus Vinyl, in the battle of the weird names. The #1 seed is Aprihop, an I.P.A. brewed with apricots from the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware. The #8 seed is Vinyl, a spring Lager from Magic Hat in Burlington Vermont. By the way, I don't read the small print on bottles till after I do tasting notes, so I don't get their ideas of what the flavors are into my head. That said, I read the bottle and there is bizarre rambling about "mysterious melange" and "chaotic Chemistry", but no explanation as to why you name a beer vinyl. They smoke a lot of pot in Burlington. The palate cleanser is 6 hour slow roasted shredded pork. Alright time to actually get to the beer.

They both pour out a dark amber, but the Vinyl is pretty cloudy, while the Aprihop is clearer. The Vinyl has a nice hop bitterness, and sweet caramelized pear on the nose. You can smell the apricot in this Aprihop, but it's not too strong. There's also loads of bitter hop and grapefruit that all balances out nicely. Let'stake a sip, but first some pork. Wow, this does not taste at all like vinyl, it's a very traditional amber lager. There's light malty caramel and really nice balanced hop bitterness. Chomps down some pork. The Aprihop has a significant apricot flavor up front which intensifies before you get this rush of bitter hop. There's also a slight burnt flavor that's kind of pleasant. The Aprihop is amazing with this pork.

Now to get serious with the head to head match-up. First, a bit of pork cooked it's own juices with just a dry spice rub. The Aprihop is really concentrated and delicious, it also serves up a nice 7% abv. Damn, I wasn't supposed to eat another piece of pork, but I couldn't help it. Start again. The Vinyl has great balance it's a near perfect amber lager. I was afraid of this. I gave the Magic Hat an eight seed, because of it's stupid, inexplicable name and the hit or miss nature of their beers. But this is a real hit, it should have gotten a higher seed. However, they did give their beer a weird name, and how is this a spring beer, it tastes more like an Octoberfest. More pork. The aprihop is a bit of a novelty beer, but it goes great with pork. The Vinyl is ahead late in this game. Oh my, the glasses are at the same level, it's going into overtime. Still no winner and the glasses are almost empty. There it it goes the last sip of Aprihop. The winner on a questionable call is Aprihop. There's some controversy here,I really think Vinyl got jobbed. Aprihop moves on to the second round, but of all the losers Vinyl is by far the best, go get some now.