A new Boilermaker Series review!

I received and reviewed Easy Rider last summer, the Kentucky bourbon whiskey from Hood River Distillers, a nice easy bourbon with a bit of boozy heat, and thought that the motorcycle/biker theme of the brand would pair up nicely with Boneyard Beer, in a thematic way.

The next question, naturally, was which Boneyard beer to pair with the Easy Rider? I was initially leaning toward Hop Venom Double IPA, which is a terrific beer and is probably my favorite from the brewery. But I decided not to pair boozy with boozy and went with RPM IPA, Boneyard’s flagship, as a worthy foil to the bourbon. I believe I chose correctly!

(Plus I could get a 19.2-ounce “stovepipe” can of RPM which seemed appropriate.)

You can read about Easy Rider at the post linked above. As for RPM, it’s 6.5% ABV with 50 IBUs, and the description says:

Brewed using 6 different NW varieties of hops at over 2.5 pounds per barrel, RPM IPA focuses on extreme hoppiness rather than bitterness. It’s golden to copper in color with a complex malt profile that will not overshadow the hops. Our flagship, RPM IPA, will satisfy any opinionated hop forward IPA consumer.

For my boilermaker pairing, as usual I pour a glass of beer and a shot of whiskey and sip on them concurrently; I (usually) don’t bother mixing the whiskey into the beer, or dropping the entire full shot glass into the pint.

Some stream of consciousness review notes:

Right off the bat the classic resinous, fruity-spicy hop aroma of the RPM is countering the spicy-leathery-boozy bourbon nose. Take a sip and oooh, the boozy sweet bourbon (which is still a bit hot) tempers the hop bitterness and resin and draws out a pronounced fruitiness from the IPA—mango, orange (marmalade), maybe even some sweet melon. The beer definitely takes a softer, sweeter character with the bourbon, and then sipping more, the sticky hops reassert themselves to scrub the sweet vanilla-oak you pick up from the Easy Rider. This is a really good pairing.