Legacy Brewing Hoptimus Prime

There are a couple of trends that I find somewhat disturbing showing up in the craft brewing industry lately. The first is a tendency for brewers to want to make everything bigger. Almost every brewery seems to put out a big beer, heavy, sweet, hoppy and high in alcohol. This really strikes me as a chicken and the egg scenario. The brewers will tell you that these are the types of beers that are selling and that they are only giving in to the demands of the marketplace. However, I suspect that these are the beers that are selling because those are the ones being made and marketed.

The second trend that I find disturbing is the marketing of beers with names that are reminiscent of our childhood. While not exactly tradmark infringements, these names certainly skirt right around the edge of the issue, attempting to cash in on the popularity of something currently in the public eye. For example, Bear Republic Brewing has an India Pale Ale that is called Racer 5. The label and font is designed to draw a very close reference to the cartoon Speed Racer that was recently redone as a full length feature movie by Warner Bros. Pictures. The thing I find most troubling is not the brazenness of these companies attempting to piggy back on another item's popularity but the parallel that will soon be drawn to what happend in the tobacco industry. Someone soon will come up with the idea that these companies are attempting to market beer to children because of these oblique references to cartoons. Then the witch hunt will begin in earnest.

Today's beer is one that is following both of these trends. It is called Hoptimus Prime and it is from the Legacy Brewing Company in Reading, PA. I'm sure most of you caught the reference to the lead robot in the Transformers movie. I mean I get it, it's a hoppy beer with a catchy title, but my Spidey Sense is tingling if you know what I mean. So now that we're done with marketing, let's talk about the beer.

The company is calling this a Double India Pale Ale. In simple terms, when something is labeled as a Double anything, it means that it is a bigger version of the original. This beer has that in spades. I personally always use Bass Ale as my epitome of the India Pale Ale style of beer and this is almostly exactly double of that. It has a medium depth orange color and a strong hop aroma. From the nose you'd expect it to be sweeter than it is. It has a nicely layered complexity with a light, grainy taste and a subtle sweetness on the bottom with a hoppiness riding on the top. It is well balanced so that neither the sweetness or the hopiness dominates this brew. Made from three types of malt and five different hops including a two week period of dry hopping, this is a surprising beer and one that I give 4 out of 5 stars. I just really wish they had come up with a better name.