Barley Mowat 

As I alluded to in my previous post, I felt it was time to revisit my “Central City IPA is slightly better than Driftwood Fat Tug” theory. This was prompted by the rapid rise in the availability of Fat Tug through the LDB, and a recent perceived drop in the quality of CC’s canned products. Perceived, at least, by me. Ben Coli from Sloppy Gourmand. suggested we do dual re-reviews of which beer comes out ahead, and I agreed, always keeping an eye out for any paper-thin excuse to drinking dangerously large quantities of high test craft beer.

So this weekend, with the assistance of the lovely Sharon, I performed a single-blind taste test of the two buggers. Unlike some of my previous taste tests, this one had a beer lineup that ranged from Very Good to Excellent; the only question was really what the the order was.

Oh yeah, this is a horrible inconvenience.

The result can hardly be characterized as fair. About 1/2 a sip into “Sample A” I immediately identified it as Driftwood Fat Tug, so well do I know these beers. Of course, Sharon did not confirm nor deny my suspicions until after I was done, but it was pretty obvious.

The differences I had previously ID’d held true. Fat Tug has a bigger, fuller body, and CC has the fragrant citra hops pounding away at your nose. However, when put side by side, monster hops against monster hops, the CC’s advantage ebbs away while the Fat Tug’s smoother tones hold true. In the end, the CC ends up tasting like slightly bitter water in comparison.

However, that’s in a head-to-head comparison. I don’t know about you, but I very rarely find myself double-fisting 6.5% and 7.0%ABV IPAs. OK, maybe not that infrequently, but when I do I’m not in it for the subtle flavours of each, but rather looking to numb my tongue with the excessive hops before launching into the much more economical mouthwash-drinking portion of the evening’s entertainment.

Round two saw me enjoy a nice 5oz of each beer solo. Again, the Fat Tug won out due to the bigger body. Long after the intensity of the hops on each had faded, the Fat Tug continued to offer up flavour while the CC IPA seemed to out-hop itself.

I don’t know if the canned formula has changed, but overall the massive hop blast I’d come to expect from the CC simply wasn’t there whenever Fat Tug was around, and that proved to be it’s downfall. I will have to try this test again with the draught versions the next time I’m out, as I have always found the draught CC IPA to be even more massively awesome than the canned.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the CC IPA is still a fantastic IPA; it’s just that the Fat Tug is slightly more fantastic. I guess I need to update that list on the right now.