Origin: Spain
Type: IPA
Color: Copper
Alcohol content: 8%
Recommended serving temperature: 10ºC/50ºF
Brewery: Cervezas Medina
I am going to dedicate today’s post to one of my favorite discoveries from last week’s Craft Beer Fair in the Cervecería L’Europe, the 888 Imperial IPA from Cerveza Medina.
The Craft Beer Fair at Cervecería L’Europe,held last Sunday and Monday, was a relatively small event, being as it was held in a moderately sized bar in the center of Madrid. However, being as it was held in one of the places with the best beer in the city, it was by no means a small affair. In a relatively small space, they managed to fit a fantastic mix of over a dozen breweries, some well-known, some less known, all showcasing their best beers. I managed somehow to come home with most of them, quite a few in bags and another few in my stomach and ultimately in my head. Several of these, maybe the majority, were from Cervezas Medina.
Cervezas Medina has a real knack for making IPAs, brewing to me some of the best ones in Spain. This is their most recent creation (in fact, this beer is so new, it does not even appear on the brewery’s webpage yet) and they have clearly outdone themselves again.
The 888 Imperial IPA is a reddish brown beer with a significant amount of cream colored foam, which takes a pretty long time to reduce. This foam is really odorous and exacerbates the smell of this beer to a surprising level.
The smell, much like the taste, let me put this forward first, is very bitter, even extremely so.
Other than that, the first thing you get from this beer is a fruitiness reminiscent of some form of white fruit, such as a very bitter pear or maybe apple. Once this initial intense fruity smell dies down, especially as the foam starts to reduce, the smell turns a bit herby-er.
Nevertheless, the fruitiness of this beer once again takes the upper hand in the taste, allowing the taste of herbs through only marginally for a few instants.
These flavors come through pretty straightforwardly and undistorted, given the limited carbonation of this beer. Indeed, even if you do feel a certain twinge in your mouth when you drink it, you do not really ever feel it bubble at all. Despite its lack of significant carbonation,this beer still displays an impressive body, almost a thickness, which is very pleasant to the palate.
The finish is all bitterness and dryness. Let me be clear, you will get no malty sweetness from this beer, it is all hardcore.
In fact, the name itself is pretty descriptive as to what you will get inside the bottle. As their brewer explained, the 888 simply comes from its 88 IBUs and its 8%ABV. It is a no nonsense beer.
I have not yet had the chance to try to pair this with anything, but my guess is this will need some pretty spicy and flavorful foods to stand up to it. I would suggest for example traditional IPA pairings, such as chili con carne, but heavy on the chili in this case.
I would not recommend the 888 Imperial IPA if you like softer, more mellow beers. If that is the case, this is not your beer.I would on the contrary recommend it if you particularly enjoy IPAs or double or imperial IPAs (as is my case). In that case you are in for a real treat.
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