Hop Rising IPA by Dainton Beer

Just taking a quick aside from the Royal Tour for a brief dalliance with the actual original mission of this blog: calling out awesome beers and breweries! Rest assured the next Royal Hotel write up will still be arriving next week as scheduled. But I just wanted to take a moment to share a beer I’ve been absolutely loving lately: Hop Rising IPA by Dainton Beer.

Anyone who’s read the blog much will likely be aware of my strong affinity towards hops. One might suspect that a beer called “Hop Rising” might have a fair bit of hoppiness to it. Those suspicions might be furthered by the fist clinching a hop on the can. Further, the can description of this beer as a “Defiantly Hopped IPA” removes most of any lingering doubt. But it’s that first sip that really brings it home. This is a hoppy beer. A glorious hoppy beer.

There are a lot of beers out there that are hoppy just for the sake of being hoppy (and to be honest I love those as well). This one is not really one of those. It’s overtly hoppy, that’s true. But the hops aren’t just crammed in there for the sake of it. While hops are just about the only thing going on here, that’s because the rest of the beer (the malt, the body, etc) is constructed specifically to highlight the hops. So it’s not so much a fistful of hops jammed into your face (although again, that’s not something I’d necessarily object to). This is a carefully crafted hop delivery system.

I first tried Hop Rising a month or two ago as part of a larger order from Dainton. My next order was for a full case of 24 cans of Hop Rising. I’m now on my second case of Hop Rising. It’s my favourite new beer I’ve tried in quite some time. It is a limited release so it’s not going to be around forever. But at the time of writing it was still available via Dainton’s website. So whether you get it straight from the source, or happen to find it in your favourite craft bottle shop, if you like your hops, I highly highly recommend grabbing one. I may well end up going a third case of it before all is said and done.