Snoqualmie Wildcat India Pale Ale

A beer that's been around since at least 2003. In fact, my very first beer-trade -- pre-BA, no less -- was with a guy I got to talking to on HBD.org. While I've lost touch with both Toggle and HBD.org on the whole, to this day I've still woken up in the middle of the night, with pleasant dreams of this awesome IPA fading but never truly receding.

When my buddy XXL moved up to Tacoma, I was bummed to have my O'Brien's drinkin' buddy leave, but also knew that he was moving to a part of the country that not only kept him employed, but could be a nice source of PacNW hoppy goodness!

Newer label than what I remember. But otherwise? Just as awesome as I remember it being 6-something years ago. I had forgotten that this was an 100% Columbus beer (or "CTZ", in brewer-speak, since Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus are interchangeable)..., which also begs the question, "Why don't more brewers go this route"? I mean, I can think of at least three all-Centennial IPAs, a handful of all-Simcoe, a diminishing number of all-Cascade, and even an all-Amarillo or two. I wonder why Columbus (et al) seems to have been over-looked?

No matter. What matters is that has always been a long-lost favorite of mine. And it's nice to see that all those years pining for this weren't in vain. Rather, only reinforced my already high regard for this outfit.

Big ol' thanks to my bud Richard for the hook up (for this, and a few other beers). You'll get some fresh SoCal hoppy adult beverages up your way in short order, promise!
//TB

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Previous Review, 03-10-2003:

Wow, this is *nice*...! The rather dull looking label on the 22-oz bottle says nothing about how truely awesome this IPA is....! Perfect carbonation, nice dry hoppy front-end, smooth in the middle, and nice and refreshing in the finish. Reminds me a bit of Diamond Knot's various excellent IPA's. If I can get this locally, I would drink this all the time. As such, I have to special order this most excellent IPA. Regardless, yet another superior PacNW IPA...!
//TB