Action Figures & Their Beers - Head trip

by Beedo Sookcool
on 2013-06-24, 08:00:59

FAT HEAD’S HEAD HUNTER

We conclude the longest AF&TB run yet with something extra-special. In the past, I’ve had people recommend beers and boozes to me which subsequently got reviewed, but Head Hunter is the first drink that someone has gone out of his or her way to actually send to me. (For legal reasons, this mysterious benefactor shall simply be referred to herein as “The Captain.”)

Since I already used the POTJ deluxe Amanaman (Doot doo doo doo-doo!) for Banana Bread Beer, this brew gets partnered with the Legacy Comic 2-Pack Amanin taken from the Star Wars: Empire “To the Last Man” story arc featuring Luke Skywalker’s childhood buddy, Janek “Tank” Sunber. Funny thing about this Amani figure: it’s largely based on the lorekeeper who shows up at the end of the story, yet is toned down without the extra paraphernalia, and presented as a non-specific member of the Maridun hordes. So I went ahead and customised the one on the left into the aforementioned lorekeeper, whom I have taken to calling Jarrudzin the Unforgivable (for reasons that don’t need exploring at this juncture). The one on the right is the same figure, without all the necklaces and such, and whose spear is topped by a Chap Mei-style caveman skull headdress, because it looks an awful lot like it might belong to one of those vulture-lion things from the Maridun episodes of Clone Wars.

Fat Head’s Brewery of Middleburg Heights, OHIO (Thank ’e, Captain; it’s been over six years since I’ve had a taste of Ohio!) has won silver and bronze medals at The Great American Beer Festival for this brew in the American-Style India Pale Ale category. A stonking 7.5% ABV, this is the strongest American beer I have ever drunk. The blurb on the label reads: “UNCIVILIZED AND AGGRESSIVE. No other ingredient stirs the passion of a master brewer like the hop. Inspired by this legendary flower we challenged ourselves to create a world class IPA. Head Hunter is an aggressively dry-hopped, uncivilized, West-Coast-Style IPA with a huge hop display of pine, grapefruit, citrus, and pineapple. A punch-you-in-the-mouth brew for those who truly love their hops! Love the Lupulin. Dig the Dank. Respect the Resin. Do not age. Hoppy beers are best consumed fresh.” So, after all this palaver, what about the beer itself?

Wow. Just . . . wow. The aroma is rich, slightly fruity, and redolent of hops. The taste is incomparable. It’s like millions of molecules of this beer gang up on each individual taste-bud in your mouth and set about making them squeal like pigs. The experience starts off innocently enough. You get a nice, mellow, comforting beery taste, which only lasts as long as you’ve got a mouthful of the stuff swishing around your buccal cavity. And then, once you’ve swallowed, The Aftertaste (yes, it deserves to be capitalised) kicks in with murder in its eyes. The Aftertaste is stunningly bitter, but just when you think your face is about to implode from the sourness, The Aftertaste settles down to a much more mellow, salivation-inducing tang with just a bit of an edge to it. Some beers go down smooth; this beer goes down fighting and cursing to the last. However, I noticed that as the beer got to a couple of degrees above ice-cold, the stregnth of the aftertaste was a bit more muted. Either that, or I’d been drinking it so long that my tongue was numb.

As I said, it’s been over six years since I last had a proper taste of Ohio, and this experience was no letdown, let me tell you. The next time I visit the Buckeye State, I’m going to put the chemo on hold and acquaint myself with this brewery’s wares. I’ve browsed their website, and they have a beer brewed with blueberries. Blueberries, man. One of my all-time favourite foods. It’s like they know me personally and are brewing the beers just for me. I don’t use this word very often for things smaller than geographical features, but: Awesome.

Drink this if you also like: Shepherd Neame brews, any other incredibly tangy, hoppy ales, or great stuff from The Buckeye State.

Next week: The series wrap-up!