So, I get this package from Double Mountain Brewing of Hood River, Oregon, and I’m having a busy day and toss it in the beer fridge and go about my business…which, these days, involves making hummingbird nectar and pruning honeysuckle, or some other such domestic shite that falls to retired guys. At any rate, I get sidetracked by these crucial, momentous, paradigm-shifting tasks and…forget the stuff is in the fridge. Three days later, I go looking for a beer and find…Escape From Indiana…No clue. Then, I look closer and see the names Double Mountain and Everybody’s on the top of the label, my two remaining brain cells cough up the term “Collaboration”, and it all makes sense.
Now, understand that I have cans of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in my fridge, along with Echoes Brewing’s “Monk’s Indiscretion”, “M.O.A.T.”, and Oktoberfest on the same shelf, along with two Barleywines from Breakside Brewing and a bottle of Chimay Blue. What are the chances that I’m gonna drink the thing with not one but TWO Snake Pliskens on the label? (Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE me some Snake Plisken.)
Apparently, pretty good because I pass on all that immortal greatness and open something that I know absolutely squat about.
And just about fall over sideways.
Matt Swihart of Double Mountain met Doug Ellenberger of Everybody’s in, of all places, a bar in West Lafayette, Indiana. They were both IN natives and Matt was working for what he describes as “a large Hood River brewery”. (Gee, who could that be? The possibilities are not exactly, uh, numerous.) Longshot, Doug wound up coming west, into the Columbia River Gorge, (at that time, not exactly the nexus of PNW brewing) where he put down some roots.
Fast forward, Matt starts Double Mountain, while, just across the river, on the Washington side, in a tiny town called White Salmon, Doug founds Everybody’s Brewing. Fun ensues, beer is made, the friends continue being friends, often talk about collaboration but, being busy, don’t get to it until the summer of 2023. FINALLY, these two Hoosier beer geeks hook up and decide to celebrate their roots. Not the Gorge roots mentioned above but Indiana or what those of us in the South and Mid-Atlantic states refer to as, “Over there, between Ohio and Illinois“.
I have been to Indiana. Spent a bit of time there, while living in Chicago. Escaping is not a bad idea. So, the name of this beer sorta suggested itself.
Okay, there’s the scene-setting. Here’s the play:
Double Mountain/Everybody’s “Escape from Indiana” is the best thing I have ever tasted from either brewery – and that is Sayin’ Sumthin’.
Everybody’s and DM are both broadly-based rosters of beers. They do not do narrow-focus and they both exist in the shadows of two of the Pacific Northwest’s genuine brewing giants: Full Sail and pFriem Family Brewers. Hard to make a splash when you’re sharing the pool with whales but both these breweries have persistently crafted fine, creative, and occasionally exceptional beers for years, now. Everybody’s has made it into my fridge repeatedly, with Country Boy IPA, Hoppy AF, and The Cryo American IPA appearing (and quickly disappearing) just in the past eight months. Double Mountain has contributed a growler of Biere de Mars, Fa La La La La Winter Warmer, Pale Death (one of the region’s IRRATIONALLY few Belgian IPAs)(Damnit), Vaporizer, and Hop Lava, along with several KILLER ciders. They have brewed across every conventional and some fairly obscure styles and done it all at least solidly.
But this new West Coast IPA came as a complete shock to me, if probably not to them. For those uncertain about what constitutes “West Coast IPA”, here’s what I wrote to a colleague when asked to describe the style: “Clean, unhazy, more about the flavor notes from varied hops than with cramming in tropical fruit and banana esters. Dry, crisp, an element of “dank” but complexity beyond that. In literal terms, the WCIPA is something of a backlash against the rabid proliferation of the NEIPA. It references the original American IPA but moves beyond it, with the greater number of hops and understanding of how to use them.“
There is the nutshell of Escape from Indiana.
Something that often happens in making an IPA is a certain sharpness or even slightly metallic note that is hinted at in the mid-palate. It is rarely definite enough to turn anyone off about the beer and it’s possible that I am just more picky about it than other people. It is common enough to pass off as a part of the “dankness” character of many OG IPAs, with their hallmark pine needle/herbs/grapefruit flavors. And, indeed, in the context of an aggressively dank beer, it’s okay; desirable, even. But I find that the IPAs that I drink and value most – and there aren’t a ton of ’em – don’t show ANY borderline problematic notes like that. Ninkasi’s “Tricerahops”, Fort George Brewing’s “The Optimist”, Firestone Walker “Union Jack”…those are just a few but they all have that…Thing in common. They are seamless, unquestionable. The Danksters don’t like ’em but they have plenty of choices. And now, Escape from Indiana joins that roster of beers I want in my fridge.
The photo of the glass shows a very pale yellow with a very slight cloudiness, a color that belies a lovely malt quality that gives this a silken texture that goes down ridiculously easy. The flavors run to those unmistakable Southern Hemisphere flavors and, in fact, the primay hops used here and from New Zealand. The use of Thyolized yeasts – essentially the dried and powdered remnants of the highest-thiol New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc grapes – helps “unlock” flavors not readily apparent in many species of hops. What Thiols Are is a subject SO insanely geeky and complicated that I won’t go into it here and wouldn’t even if I had the time. (Google it, if you’re interested, and make a pot of coffee because you’re gonna be up all night) You’ll get flavors of mango and tangerine and stone fruit and citrus and gorgeous, assertively bitter pine and pomelo notes. Everything is clean and distinct and there is no muddy bottom to this ale at all. It is crazy refreshing and yet substantial and has enough quasi-dankness, at a fat 65 IBUs, to satisfy HopHeads. There are no sharp edges at all and it is compulsively drinkable, a legit IPA that even your craft newbie and Back East friends can enjoy without Bitter Beer Face.
I realize this is supposed to be a one-off, as most collabs usually are. But I URGE Swihart and Ellenberger to at very least consider making this a year-round offering. It is THAT freakishly good. This is where the “craft” part of “craft beer” sticks up its head and takes the spotlight. Here are two fine brewers who have hit their strides in their profession and crafted – planned, refined, executed, and finished – a beer which can stand toe-to-toe with the best beers to come out of the Gorge which, again, is Sayin’ Somethin’. Escapism has never tasted this good.
The Pour Fool 