Well folks, here I am again, your on-scene reporter bringing you the latest beery news and reviews from my local Taco Mac. Tonight we’re here to tell you about yet another entry in the misnamed “Session IPA” style of beers. This one is called The Hops You Rode In On and comes from the Lonerider brewery of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Just about every brewery is putting out one of these beers these days, and I’ll admit I like them well enough as the first beer of the night. Like most of them, The Hops You Rode In On is not an IPA (it doesn’t have the gravity for the style) or a session ale (it’s over the traditional 4% threshold for that term). It is a little different than most of the examples of the style I’ve tried, as we’ll soon see. Oh, and the name is pretty cool, too.
Here’s what Lonerider says about the beer on their website:
The Hopes (SIC) You Rode In On is our brewers take on a session ale. It’s a refreshing, easy to drink ale that tastes like the Amarillo and Columbus hops used to brew it.
Lonerider The Hops You Rode In On has an alcohol content of 4.4% by volume and I paid $6 for a 20-ounce mug. This is a seasonal beer, which makes sense as it is a refreshing beer suited to warm weather.
My mug of Lonerider The Hops You Rode In On arrived a brilliant orange amber color with a medium head and a good bit of piney resin hops in the nose. That’s the difference I was talking about here you see, for as I sip the hops are very resiny and piney instead of fruit loopy. The malt still comes in way too thin for me and the long bitter dry finish reinforces that.
Overall, I like the hops here but still miss the malt. Average, I think, for this style of beer, but to be fair with these resiny hops I like it better than most. If given a choice between this and the namby-pamby fruit loop hop “session IPAs”, I’d likely choose this one. So yes, I think I’d buy it again.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
(G)=Growler