La Vache Folle Centennial Double IPA

9% alc./vol., 500 ml bottle
Microbrasserie Charlevoix – http://www.microbrasserie.com/
Baie-Saint-Paul, Québec, Canada

If you’re a French doctor, you might think of this beer as “Encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine”, since it’s named after mad cow disease.  When an infected cow or this 9% beer is ingested, you will experience memory loss, personality changes, hallucinations, speech impairment, and problems with balance.  Of course, the disease is invariably fatal, while the beer is almost never fatal.  Do you like a strong beer, and do you like a lot of hops?  I only like strong beers when there are a lot of hops…like the song says, ”you can’t have one without the other”.  It’s bitter but in a good way, thanks to Centennial hops, and Centennial hops alone.  There’s only one kind of hops in this limited edition series of beers…can you taste the citrus?  Bitter citrus makes me think of orange zest, i.e. grated orange peel, and once I thought of that, it’s what I taste in the beer.  It’s yummy but powerful, and certainly not for the faint of heart.