Bogota's Next Big Thing, Michigan's Pride

I just spent the last few hours watching the Tigers cement their month-long descent into regular season oblivion as they lost their Division Playoff to the Twins. Despite the jeers from Cubs and Sox fans, I was able to watch most of the game (from roughly the times the Twins fought back from a 3-1 deficit) at one of my favorite Chicago beer bars, The Local Option. Awash in disappointment with my hometown team, I found solace in something else from Michigan--Two Hearted Ale, the much-loved IPA from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo.

The Local Option carries the best selection of craft beer from Midwestern brewers in town, and Bell's beers are prominently featured. Despite a spotted history with distribution in the Windy City, Bell's is revered here, and it should be. Two Hearted won the inaugural Alpha King Challenge and is frequently copied by brewers around the country who want to make a solid IPA with lots of hop flavor and restrained bitterness. I've long argued that Two Hearted is the greatest IPA produced in the world and that it is also the best beer that one can buy in a six-pack in the world. Over time, my beer-curious friends who've traveled to the Midwest have found themselves converted. At this summer's end, some of my friends who had spent the summer in the Wisconsin Northwoods were sure to bring back a haul of New Glarus brews, but they made a special place for Two Hearted as well.

Since I've been in Chicago, I've seen my beer school friends fall for Two Hearted as well. Chuck, who's lived in New York, Connecticut, and Seattle, finally had his first taste tonight. "That's an incredible IPA," he said, conceding that it lived up to all of the hype he had heard in his years ignoring the "flyover states." Similarly, Adrian, our resident master brewer from the Bogota Beer Company, had one taste and said "Wow! How do they get those hops? This beer would be huge in Colombia. It's hoppy and sweet without being bitter. I want to brew it." And Dustin, who's a fellow Portlander, here in Chicago on loan from Laurelwood Brewing Co, said that he too was amazed that a beer that he had heard so much about could live up to its reputation.

What makes Two Hearted so great? It pours a transparent copper and tangerine with long-lacing head and good carbonation. The bouquet is dominated by hops, strong floral aromas that are assertive, though not overwhelming.

As for taste, Two Hearted has a clean, hop bitterness and is balanced by a crisp sweetness that imparts a remarkable, refreshing quality to the beer. Beyond this, it's the straightforwardness that strikes me again and again: this brew perfectly captures its style with a striking simplicity, and I can't imagine how it could be improved upon. Whereas many other IPAs or Double IPAs (and very good ones at that), strive for shocking levels of hops or a more complex palate, Two Hearted seems content to reveal itself quickly and cleanly and perfectly, again and again.

Two Hearted, unlike a wayward baseball team, never disappoints. In a head-to-head competition with Minnesota's best IPA (Surly's Furious), the MN offering tasted like an underhopped amber. And that decision--from me and my friends both--didn't require extra innings.