Lagunitas 2009 Correction Ale

I think we’re all Bozos on this bus… I mean, really - who would ever have given their money to a guy with a name like “Made-Off?” If one day an oily guy named Soprano showed up at your door wearing a suit that said Countrywide offering free money; who would have taken it? Isn’t ‘free money’ an oxymoron? If it was all too good to be true, it was. Wasn’t the end in sight when ‘Flip This House’ went on television…? In the future 2009 will be in there with 1929, 1941, and 1968. OK, we ALL partied down and, YES, we took some liberties with some of our female guests. But now it’s the day after Mardi Gras when everyone kneels down and prays. Apparently, it really is possible to have too much fun. But it is far better to have partied and lost than to never have partied at all. Gracefully surrender the things of 2008. Smoke a fag, drink a beer, and buy toothpaste…in that order. Live to party again…

Macro-Economics 101, from the 420 Krewe @ Lag? Oh fuckin' brother....

But anyway, this beer, that makes a huge point to push this beer as "This is NOT a Double IPA. It's just a good American Ale", is still what any common-sensed drinker would call an American IPA. This is supposed to be a beer meant to pull back the reins a bit, but is still clocking in at 1.062 O.G. and 74.20 IBUs? Nice to see that the Lag'ers are still hitting the ol' peace pipe....

This beer is a cousin to the Hop Stoopid, or perhaps a younger half-brother. Same emphasis on the hoppy aroma, same basic hop profile in the flavor. And the same vaguely fake but not unappealing "feel" to the whole affair. Is this another beer with some/most/all hop extract vice actual hop flowers/pellets/cones?

Not sure. But while I was pleasantly surprised with this beer at the onset, it calmed down some, and got in a bit a groove the rest of the way. Not in a bad way, mind you, but just similar to how a pitcher will punch out 4-5 batters in a row with strikeouts in the first two innings...., and then spend the rest of the time in the game getting less fancy but no less effective pop-ups and easy grounders for outs.

The past year or so it seems like Lagunitas has sobered up some, and has actually tried to step away from the pot-head shtick to make some decent beers. We'll see.

This one is not perfect -- the chalky bitterness ("fake" or not) got a little tiresome near the end -- but this is a step in the right direction.
//TB