Wayward Brewing- IPA: The Big Bang Theory
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 at 8:41PM 
On Friday August 20th I had the opportunity to make cider with my friend Dusty Peters from Midnight Local Brewing and Daniel Luksetich from Wayward Brewing. Both guys are a lot of fun and great brewers. While I was doing my best to avoid severing one of my fingers as I hacked away at a mountainous 150 lbs of apples, I found a moment of absolute nirvana. A Zen-like feeling came over me. Yes, I was very excited about the cider that we were making but that wasn’t what had me going. I was given a bottle of IPA from Wayward Brewing.
Wayward Brewing’s IPA has a creamy head of bright white foam that sits atop a clean golden-colored beer. The aroma has bits of citrus and malt. There is a beautiful hop bitterness which weaves itself between layers of malty flavors that resemble breakfast cereal with notes of pre-fermented wort. This IPA has a medium carbonation that accentuates the complex flavors that dance on the tongue. It finishes a little dry leaving you begging for another encounter with this perfectly balanced IPA.
A lot of IPAs that I try are simply hop bombs without a strong enough spark of malt. There can be no explosion with that combination; however the IPA from Wayward Brewing has intense explosive force. I felt a deep sense of disappointment as my glass emptied because I knew that was my only one. One day when Wayward becomes a household name and you try this delight you will see what I mean.
Both Wayward and Midnight Local are home-breweries with excellent beer that people should know about. I talked it over with Jason and we decided to create a section of TGBOAT entirely devoted to homebrew. We are going to give homebrewers a chance to submit beer and have it reviewed for all to see. Keep checking back as details will be forthcoming!
ABV: 8.2%
Consumed: Mother Earth Globe Glass
Verdict: Buy a Case
