A few months ago I was sitting at Taco Mac here in Canton drinking a beer. Big surprise, no?  Anyway, the beer I was sipping was a specialty release from Jailhouse Brewing called Hop Riot, an Imperial Pale Ale as the brewery describes it of formidable 8% alcohol content by volume. I really think this imperial business in the beer world is being overdone these days, and I am especially leery of “Imperial Pale Ales”. Why? Imperial beers usually involve throwing more of the traditional ingredients at a style to make it bigger, bolder, and stronger. Throw extra malt and hops at a pale ale and what do you get? India Pale Ale.

See? Been there, done that. IPA is probably the original imperial beer. Still, as I’m a big fan of Jailhouse I gave Hop Riot a try. It was a little pricey, I think, at $7.00 for an 11 ounce “short pour”. Half point demerit for that. The beer, aprt of the brewery’s “Solitary Confinement” series, is currently advertised as now available on the Jailhouse website, in bombers and on draft (I have yet to see it in bottles to this date however).

I should note that while the label calls this an “Imperial Pale Ale”, the Jailhouse Website calls it a “Double IPA.” They further add:

“Hop Riot has a slightly sweet but abusively woody-citrus nose. Backed by just the right amount of malt richness, Hop Riot is surprisingly drinkable and satisfyingly balanced with a smooth and well-rounded hop bitterness.”

Ok, let’s see what I think.

Jailhouse Hop Riot Imperial Pale Ale (Double IPA) pours to a dark orange color with a light creamy head formation and a slightly buttery, faintly minty hop nose. A very fine layer of Brussels lace clings to the sides of my glass as the liquid descends. Taking a sip, I get some buttery diacetyl and caramel up front, and then some lightly grassy, minty herbal hops emerge with a vicious bitterness ringing in at the end where it lingers for a good time on the tongue.

I almost get the feeling that Jailhouse was trying to restrain the hop aroma here to keep this beer from seeming too much like a bigger IPA and more like an Imperial Pale Ale. In any case, I would have liked more hop aroma.

Overall, Jailhouse Hop Riot is big on bitterness but not so much on hop aroma and flavor. It definitely seemed out of balance to me, and could have used more hop flavor. I love Jailhouse beers, but this is not their best effort. The price doesn’t help. If the bomber is consistent with their other specialties at around $8.99, then I probably won’t pick it up.

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