Upper Hand Brewery Double Ringer

Beer Name: Double Ringer
Brewery: Upper Hand Brewery (Escanaba, MI)
ABV: 10.0%
How sold: 6-packs of 12 oz. bottles; on draft
Where bought: Saraveza (Portland, OR)
Price: $3.00 for a 12 oz. single

Date Bottled: April 8, 2016
Date Purchased: June 14, 2016
Date Opened: July 1, 2016
When brewed? Seasonal/specialty beer. Debuted around March 2016.

What's on the Bottle/Website: "Our Double IPA celebrates the spring culture of the Upper Peninsula. Robust and hop-forward, Double Ringer offers a blend of pine and tropical fruit aromas, with a bit of malt backbone." Read more here!

Where distributed: As of July 2016, Upper Hand Brewery can only be found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in Northern Wisconsin. In mid-June, Larry Bell graciously brought some of these beers to Portland as part of a special PDX Beer Week event. See if Upper Hand ships to your area!

REVIEW:

Appearance (5%): Poured clear golden into a pint glass. Frothy white to off-white head. 4.5/5

Smell (25%): Mostly a pleasing tropical pineapple and other citrus notes. 4.25/5

Taste (40%): Hop-forward, mostly tropical pineapple. Very smooth considering it is 10% ABV. A complementing hint of tropical malt on the back end. Flavorful and awesome. 4.25/5

Mouthfeel (10%): Medium-bodied, some carbonation. 4.25/5

Overall (20%): An awesome Double IPA. It was a no-brainer that I was attending this event at Saraveza, and the consensus in Portland is obvious: Bell's Brewery and Upper Hand Brewery are extremely popular with the locals. I'm glad Larry Bell himself was here to see how passionate we are about our beer, since that should probably lead to additional future shipments. As expected, this beer showcased the balanced nature a great IPA from the Midwest can have. Here's to hoping we get an encore shipment of these very soon. 4.25/5

Final Weighted Rating: 4.263/5