The Ninkasi Brewery of Eugene, Oregon, does not sell its beers in Georgia. More’s the pity for that. They are, however, very highly regarded amongst beer enthusiasts, so I had to try them. Some years ago, I bought a few bombers (Oatis Oatmeal Stout and Believer Double Red Ale) of their beer through an online beer retailer (Letspour, sadly now defunct I believe). Today, I’m back to talk about another beer I bought virtually: Ninkasi Tricerahops Double IPA.

This time around, I got my beer from Craftshack. Tricerahops is a beer I have wanted to try for a very long time, so when I saw it, I was all over it. This is classic American double/imperial IPA with a solid maltiness and a permeating hop infusion, and now that I have tried it, I’m even more heartbroken Ninkasi beers are so elusive here.

Ninkasi says on their website:

A few thousand years before we opened Ninkasi, Columbian mammoths roamed this area by the thousands. They stood 13 feet high with tusks 16 feet long. This is our monument to all the big and beautiful beasts that came before us. Tricerahops is an ancient field of floral hops with a deep, earthy taste and a balanced finish you never want to end.

I’m not sure how Columbian mammoths fit in with triceratops, the horned dinosaur that died off about 66 million years ago and inspired the name of this beer. Still, Tricerahops does feature hops in mammoth proportion. So I’ll allow it.

One the can label, Ninkasi says:

A colossal hop profile defines this deceivably drinkable Double IPA. Earthy and floral hops meld with a generous amount of malt, making Tricerahops incredibly bold and balanced. Hoppy, intensely flavorful and smooth, it’s double everything you already love in IPA.

Ingredients from the website:

Malts: 2-Row Pale, Munich, Carahell

Hops: Chinook, Cascade, Summit, Centennial, Palisade

Ninkasi Tricerahops has an alcohol content of 8% by volume with 84 IBUs. I paid $3.99 for my can from Craftshack, but the beer sells for $9.49 a six-pack at Total Wine. Just not here in Georgia. My can is stamped Best By 09/03/20 but I drank it on 10/11/20 and it was a magnificent beast, indeed.

Ninkasi Tricerahops pours to a bright golden orange color with a thick fluffy white head of foam and a bright citrusy hop nose. Taking a sip, the beer is malty! I get a solid caramel malt base here and I love that. The beer screams hops, it’s permeated with them, a little citrusy, gently resiny, earthy herbal and grassy and very bitter in the finish where it is joined by a kiss of alcohol warmth. The bitter hops win out over the alcohol and the beer lingers long and dry.

Ninkasi is right about one thing. This is deceivably drinkable. The dry hopping infuses the beer with absolutely delightful aromatic hop notes, and the solid malt backbone supports that perfectly. I enjoyed the beer so much I kept sipping on it until the next thing I knew, it was gone. There are few finer compliments to a beer than that.