Do you like old movies? I love old movies. One of my favorites is The Pink Panther Strikes Again starring Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. In one famous scene Clouseau, spying a dog in the corner of the lobby of an inn, asks the innkeeper if his dog bites. Clouseau reaches down to pet the canine, which promptly bites his hand. Dumbfounded, Clouseau exclaims “I thought you said your dog does not bite!” The innkeeper slowly turns to him and replies “That is not my dog.”

I was reminded of this classic bit of cinema (albeit in reverse) while enjoying a can of Road 2 Ruin Double IPA from Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing Company. In this case, the can label warns the drinker the beer has “Plenty of Bite”, though here while warned that the dog bites, I actually found it didn’t. That’s not to say it isn’t a delicious beer; it is as we’ll soon see.

From the website:

A big, hoppy IPA with plenty of bite! Our assertive, hop-centric Double IPA has a lean malt backdrop and is brewed with four American hop varieties – Summit, Palisade, Cascade and Magnum. Piney, citrus, floral, not-for-the-timid!

Two Roads Road 2 Ruin Double IPA has an alcohol content of 8% by volume and I paid $9.99 for a 4-pack of 16-ounce cans.

Two Roads Road 2 Ruin Double IPA pours to a brilliant golden orange color with a medium size head of creamy foam and a lemony citrus, herbal grassy nose. Taking a sip the beer is surprisingly light for the style but has a bit of chewy caramel followed by thick sticky resiny pine tar notes, bitter grapefruit peel and a long dry herbal bitterness. For an 8% beer this is surprisingly smooth and drinkable, and yeah it has a respectable hop bitterness in the finish.  

I found this to be a solid, tasty DIPA (with great hop burps too), but it doesn’t quite give me “plenty of bite”...though it does bite a bit. I’ve been bitten more to be honest, but that said I’d be back for another bite on this one.



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