Chama River’s “The Big Lebrewski”

The Big Lebrewski

You see before you one pint and one growler full (less one pint) of one of the finest DIPAs I’ve tasted, and that’s “The Big Lebrewski” from Chama River.

I’ve come to realize over the last year or so that Mr. Miyagi was right all along: it’s about the balance. Now, I enjoy the extreme, for sure. In fact, if a beer doesn’t have severe character in some fashion it tends to get drowned in the background noise of somebeerihadatsomepoint instead of warranting “Damn, I should blog about this one.” However, these charismatic beers must also be balanced in their extremity in order to really hit the mark.

Craft IPAs are oft advertised in terms of HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT’S GOT HOPS UP THE B’ZUNG, and while this beer most definitely has its share of hops, it’s not all hops. It’s got balance. The Big Lebrewski is not all grapefruit and pine, though those flavors are there. It’s up there, too, in ABV at 9.0%, but it doesn’t hit you with too much alcohol bite. And what comes through in the finish is hop flavor. This flavor is more than the bittering, more than the grapefruitish characteristic with which some store-bought IPAs are wrought. It’s got a toasty, malted finish that I find missing in many such beers. Hell, maybe it’s the grain coming through some how, I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it works, and it balances this DIPA on the back-end with something I’ve not experienced much, if ever, in such a beer – toasty, toasty goodness. Not sure how, but it’s there.

Thank you for your time. I’m glad we had this talk.