Review Date 12/12/2014
Try?
Re-buy?
Last summer, I spied a new beer from Victory called Moving Parts, The Ever-Evolving IPA. It was pretty reasonably priced, too, so I snapped one up and tossed it into my cart posthaste. Getting the bottle home, I read the label and learned that this will actually be a series of beers and this is batch 1, aka MP01.
Batches should be released about every four months, but I haven’t seen MP02 yet. All of the beers will be IPAs, with changing ingredients and recipes. Actually, Victory has done this before with their Braumeister Series (see Braumesiter Saaz Pils for details). Anyway, here’s what Victory says about Moving Parts MP01 on the label:
We like to mix it up. New flavors, new ideas, ingredients; we welcome them all. In celebration of our penchant for prolific experimentation, we present Moving Parts: The Ever-Evolving IPA. Each release in this series celebrates a tweaked ingredient or two, creating an endless array of possible flavor profiles.
For our first batch (codenamed MP01), we blended whole-flower hops from the US, UK and Germany with German malts to create a well-balanced IPA featuring citrus and piney notes. For us, Moving Parts are a good thing!
Victory Moving Parts MP01 has an alcohol content of 7.1% by volume and the brewery says that it’s made with “Imported two-row German malts” and “Whole flower hops from the US, UK and Germany”. Victory suggest the beer is best by 06 NOV 2014 on my bomber bottle, for which I paid $5.99. I drank it a few weeks after that date, though this is an IPA folks. They are meant to hold up to the ravages of time.
Victory Moving Parts MP01 pours to a brilliant golden color with a huge fluffy head of pillowy foam and a soft malty nose of citrus fruit and light resin. Taking a sip, I get a lighter, quite biscuity maltiness up front, more pilsner like (as in Victory Prima Pils) than caramel laden actually. The hops soon follow, very forward loaded with very lemony citrus and with more resiny pine than the nose suggested. All of this deliciousness is followed up by a huge, massive herbal bitterness that is the true star here for me.
Classic Victory malt flavors combined with tons of hops and all for $5.99? This one is a winner my friends. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go try to track down a bottle of Victory Moving Parts MP02.
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