HOPPING FROM BEER TO BEER (The Brazen Head)

My search for the best beer in New York continues….

Hops is one of the most important ingredients in beer. It’s the female of any number of flowering plants in the Cannabaceae family (the same family as marijuana) and it acts as a flavoring and preserving agent in beer. It helps balance the sweetness of the malt and gives beer that bitter, citrusy flavor. And thanks to the old German Beer Purity Law, you can’t have beer without it.

I bring up hops because on my latest craft beer venture, I discovered two very different local hoppy beers at The Brazen Head. This bar is well-known for their craft beer selection (15 on draft and one cask ale), but you’d never guess it based on the atmosphere early on a Saturday night. When I arrived it, it was quite dim and the bar was made up of a mixed crowd. There were a few older fellows who looked like they could be on their way back from a fishing expedition. There were a few younger folks near by and I think I even spotted a tourist or two. I noticed a wide range of beer being consumed, including many of the craft beer selections, but also quite a few Bud Light bottles. This is a beer bar for everyone, it seems.

I settled on two beers: the Chelsea Hop Angel and Kelso’s Wet Hopped Pale Ale. Now you understand why hops started off this review. They’re such a main ingredient in the beers that they couldn’t call them anything else.

The Chelsea Hop Angel is one of that brewery’s signature beers. It had a small head and golden orange body. Hops is the main attraction on the nose with whiffs of lemon and pine. This was a pleasant hoppy concoction, with a strong bitterness that was mellowed out with just a hint of caramel sweetness at the finish. It was a nice balanced IPA, if you’re in to that sort of thing.

For their seasonal wet hopped IPA, Kelso of Brooklyn uses fresh hops from Stone Barns farm upstate (the home to some of the best farm to table cooking). Wet hopping is just using the freshly harvested hop flower, as opposed to the more economical dried hop pellets that most breweries use. Since it’s all about freshness, Kelso’s version may not even be available any longer by the time of this writing.

The color of Kelso’s pale ale was similar to Chelsea’s, but a little lighter and more vibrant in color. I couldn’t detect much on the nose aside from some nuttiness. The hop aromas weren’t easily detectable. Once I sipped it, I got some subtle floral, spicy notes. There was some grainy biscuit flavors which imparted some sweetness and also a little bit of wet hay or barnyard qualities. It definitely reminded me of a farm, which was quite the opposite of the easier-to-drink Hop Angel. But I liked this complexity and change of pace.

It’s amazing how even within one style of beer (hoppy IPA’s), you can find so many different flavors and qualities. People say there’s a beer out there for everyone, but I seem to think there’s many different ones. Even if you don’t like the usual strong bitter notes of an IPA, you might discover a new style that suits your palate.

Is Chelsea Brewing Company’s Hop Angel the best beer in NY? It’s a nice, balanced east coast IPA, but somebody looking for a little more intense hoppiness might not be as happy with this, but I give it an 8 out of 10.

Is Kelso of Brooklyn’s Wet Hop Pale Ale the best beer in NY? It also gets a 7 out of 10, for it’s rich complexity and subtle spicy hop character. It reminds me of being on a farm, which could be a good or bad thing.