Fremont Brewing Co. - "The Sister" and "The Brother" IPAs

Today's post is a twofer - Fremont Brewing Co. out of Seattle has released two limited-edition imperial IPAs, siblings if you will, "The Brother" and "The Sister." Both are similar in terms of ingredients and brewing styles, and as such, I'm going to do a horizontal tasting, and review them side-by-side.

A "horizontal tasting" is a term used to describe a sampling of two or more kinds of beer or wine for the means of comparing them. A "vertical tasting," on the other hand, is when one reviews two more examples of the same beer or wine across several years. So, for example, you could buy two bottles of wine (a 2014 and a 2015 vintage of the same kind) and review them side-by side, noting the differences and similarity. You can do the same with beer, too - Stone Brewing Co.'s "Vertical Epic" is aged beer that was released once a year on the "repeat days" (ex. 01/01/01, 02/02/02, through 12/12/12.) Each beer is slightly different and meant to be aged. But on the release of the 12/12/12, the last beer released, Stone's brewers opened up all examples for a 12-part vertical tasting. Amazing!

Let's get to our mini-tasting, though. Both beers are imperial IPAs, each clocking in at 8.5% ABV.

As you can see, they look almost identical. Both pour a hazy orange, almost caramel, with tan-colored foam on each. Only The Brother had any lacing on the glass after the foam dissipated.

With The Brother, there's an unusual amount of sediment in the can and in the glass. A quick call to Fremont's brewhouse confirms that sediment in this beer is not expected or normal. Hmmm. Sediment is not usually a bad sign; there's often a small amount of particulates in the bottom of craft beers. But there seemed to be an inordinate amount in here, which could mean several things. But that never stopped old Jimmy!

I ended up trying The Sister first (by way of coin toss.) It's very hoppy from the start, with a sweet floral feeling to it that's really nice. There's definitely a bitter edge, especially in the aftertaste, with a little bubble of carbonation. Still delicious though.

The Brother is actually noticeably different from The Sister. Whereas The Sister is mostly strong, floral, slightly bitter flavors, The Brother ends up being deeper with a hint of fruit and hops. The Brother reminds me of the Dogfish Head 120 in terms of color and flavor, although the alcohol is half of the 120. It finishes well, and looks like the amount of sediment didn't really affect the beer one way or another.

In all, an interesting horizontal tasting. Some imperial IPAs have massive hoppy flavors and some are a little more bitter, and it was cool to see two similar styles of IPAs compared side-by-side. I bet these would be great on draft, as well.