Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Drinks at London Grill

I've been pretty busy with moving into the new house and going to St. Louis for a wedding so sorry about the lack of updates. There's a big backlog of stuff I have to write about including the Philly Beer Geek semifinals (didn't move on) and some brewpubs from St. Louis.  Look for those soon hopefully. This one is a visit Jo and I made to London Grill a little while ago partially to ensure we actually had a reservation for their Deschutes dinner during Philly Beer Week.

I started with a glass of Dogfish Head Hellhound on My Ale, a double IPA.
This is another music inspired beer similar to Bitches Brew. Citrusy, hoppy nose, didn't find much else.  Almost unpleasantly bitter up front then a ton of lemon peel notes take over and linger and linger. I found the lemon to be pretty harsh which gave the beer a kind of unpleasant finish. While I didn't hate it, I didn't enjoy it either. I'll go with so-so.

Up next was a Green Flash Imperial IPA.  London Grill was doing a mini-ipa fest so there wasn't much style choice if you're wondering why I chose two double IPAs and both pictures look pretty similar.
Huge hoppy pine aroma on this one, very different from the citrusy nose of the Hellhound. I mentioned in my notes I was having trouble placing the flavors. They were kind of earthy up front, no pine or citrus or anything I usually get from IPAs, and then followed by a huge amount of bitterness.  Just slightly difficult to put into words.  There was no malty sweetness in this one for balancing, just tons of bitterness. Definitely not my favorite of the style.

Not the best trip to London Grill as far as beers go but it's not their fault as I'm just not a huge fan of IPAs. Neither of these was particularly exciting and that's just sometimes how it goes. I did confirm our reservations for the Deschutes dinner and I'm super excited about that. The menu looks great and it finishes up with Abyss.  Can't wait for Philly Beer Week.

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