Beer Review: One Barrel Brewing Co. DDH Hypercolor

MADISON - I’m finally back in the great city of Madison and it feels good. It only took two hours more than it normally does, because children are monsters, but we got here with enough time to watch the volleyball team fail to close out sets and lose to Washington.

Quite frankly, I’m just excited to be able to use a location as the opener to one of my articles.

Anyways, our lovely friends Joel and Bridget, who also happen to have two children, have always been nice enough to let us stay at their house on football weekends. They are also nice enough to have cold beer waiting for when you get to their home and thankfully they had one can left of One Barrel Brewing Co. DDH Hypercolor.

That’s a picture of their regularly hopped version, but the aesthetics are the same. Let’s talk real quickly about what “DDH” stands for when it comes to beer, in case you don’t know. It means “double dry-hopped.” First off, “dry-hopping” a beer is when you add hops after the boil in order to impart the hops’ flavor without adding any more bitterness.

Here is a good breakdown of what DDH means from Vinepair but there are basically two definitions. The first, and kinda logical definition, is: “It essentially means dry hopping twice, or [hopping with] twice as much hops,” says Scott Ungermann, brewmaster at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco.”

That makes sense!

The second definition is a bit hazier (WORD PLAY!).

“DDH seems to exist on a type [of beer], the NEIPA,” Augie Carton founder of Carton Brewing in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey says. “What that means is hop haze and protein haze with a very serious amount of late-addition hopping. DDH became shorthand for a very large amount of late-addition hops; I just think it’s silly because the first ‘D’ means ‘double,’ and if you don’t have anything to begin with, you can’t double it. If you don’t have a one, you can’t make it two.”

So, let’s see what makes One Barrel’s offering good.

One Barrel Brewing Co. DDH Hypercolor

• New England IPA
• 6% ABV
• ? IBU
• 4 rating on Untappd

The hops that One Barrel uses in their double dry-hopping are Citra and Mosaic which are two varietals that I am particularly fond of, so this beer was probably destined to be a winner for me.

This was hazy and juicy and delicious and I was upset that I had to share it with two other people. I’m hoping to find some more of this while I’m in town for the tailgate on Saturday morning.