SMASH! No, I didn’t drop and break my bottle of Odd 13 Hop Troll: El Dorado IPA. That would be pretty hard to do come to think of it because, well, there’s no such thing as a bottle of Odd 13 Hop Troll: El Dorado IPA. The brewery only cans it (besides draft of course), and they qualify that with some cans get out occasionally, and that on a beer that they say is brewed irregularly.

No, SMASH stands for Single Malt And Single Hop. Odd 13 Hop Troll IPA is a SMASH beer, being made with one hop and one malt variety. I am, of course, here to tell you about Hop Troll made with El Dorado hops and 2 row barley malt, but they’ve also made Hop Troll variants with Comet and Equinox hops. You may remember that famous quote from Forrest Gump where he says “Life is like a Hop Troll IPA. You never know what you gonna get”.

From the label:

Hop Troll is an exploration of hops from around the world. Each batch highlights a different hop variety. Hop bursting and dry hopping contribute big hop flavor and aroma. Drink fresh-haze is expected.

OK, Odd 13, I heard you and I did drink this fresh. My good buddy Dale Roberts sent me this beer from Colorado, and he included a sheet telling me it was canned on 7/5/2016. I drank it on August 21^st. The beer has an alcohol content of 6% by volume and 60 IBUs.

Odd 13 Hop Troll El Dorado pours to a cloudy yellow color with a thick creamy head of foam and spicy citric and herbal oregano hop nose. Taking a sip, the beer is smooth malty up front, very gently citric but a lot more herbal in all its hop glory. I get the very earthy, herbal spicy hop notes in the aroma that again remind me of oregano more than anything else. As it warms, more citric grapefruit notes do emerge. The finish is balanced, not exceptionally bitter, but leaves me wanting another sip.

A very tasty brew indeed and showcase for the El Dorado hop. Nicely done, Odd 13!

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



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