10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA

Review Date 1/27/2018 By John Staradumsky

  Style: India Pale Ale   Brewery: 10 Barrel   Country: USA   State: Oregon   $ Per OZ: $.16(B), $.44 (D)   ABV: 6.5%

OK, so here we go, you know (if you read my reviews regularly) that I’m not averse to buying beers from breweries acquired by Anheuser Busch Inbev. If the beer is good, I will drink it, no matter who owns the brewery. That said, I’m not going to go out of my way to do so, and the same rules and strictures apply. Lastly, if I can buy a beer from an independent brewery of equal quality for the same or lower price, I would be crazy not to do so.

Enter 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA. This is the flagship IPA for 10 Barrel of Bend, Oregon. I saw it on tap at Taco Mac and ordered a mug, having a little fun while doing so. “I want an Apocalypse..now!” I told my server. Wasn’t that fun? I love the smell of hops in the morning.

10 Barrel says on their website:

Apocalypse was one of the first beers we developed here at 10 Barrel. We redesigned the recipe four years ago to make it the most drinkable IPA possible. Apocalypse uses a combination of whole leaf and pellet hops that create a full well developed hop flavor. Wondering where all that awesome flavor comes from? Each barrel of Apocalypse IPA is loaded with 4.8 pounds of eight different hop varieties. That’s a ton of flavor.

10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA has an alcohol content of 6.5% by volume with 70 IBUs. I paid $7 for a 23-ounce mug at Taco Mac and it runs $11.99 a six-pack in bottles at Total Wine; Target has it for $11.39.

My glass of 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA arrived bright orange in color with a healthy head of foam and lots of resiny pine in the nose. Taking a sip I found medium caramel malt, grapefruit peel, pine, and a long dry bitter finish. All in all, a very tasty IPA, and one that went well with the AFC Championship game and a pile of Taco Mac’s legendary wings.

Would I buy it again though? Probably not. Case in point was the very similar Uinta West Coast-Style IPA I had next. That one was $5.25 for the same sized mug and sells at Total Wine for $2 less a six-pack. Why pay more for basically the same beer? I wouldn’t.