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It’s springtime, and Colton has prepared a tasting for us from the Devil’s Backbone Adventure Pack! Mike and Dan blind taste-test the six beers (plus an oddball bonus seventh beer) in a competitive fashion.

Here are the seven beers we tasted, in order, from the brewers’ descriptions:

Devils Backbone Brewing Company: Vienna Lager (5.2% ABV; 18 IBU) is amber in color with a subtle toasted caramel note and a smooth malty finish. Brewed using a combination of Northern Brewer and Saaz hops with Vienna, Pilsen, Dark Munich and Caramel malts and allowing five weeks for the lagering process and the flavors to fully develop.

Sun King Brewing Company:  Another State of Kind (6.8% ABV; 68 IBU) a double dank cream-style ale.  Pale in color and loaded with Simcoe and Columbus hops, this beer is an unlikely marriage of a cream ale and a double IPA.

Wicked Weed Brewing Company:  Seven Summits (10.5% ABV; 20 IBU) an Imperial Stout brewed with ingredients inspired by the world’s famed Seven Summits.  This complex brew includes Coconut (South America’s Aconcagua summit), Cocoa (Africa’s Kilimanjaro summit), Blue-green Algae (Antartica’s Vinson summit), American Oak (North America’s Denali summit), Pink Himalayan Sea Salt (Asia’s Everest summit), Black Rye Bread (Europe’s Elbrus summit) and Wattle seeds (Australia’s Mt. Kosciuszko summit.)

NoDa Brewing Company:  Session IPL (3.8% ABV; 60 IBU) a session India-style pale lager.  This highly sessionable, hoppy, crisp beer was brewed with Vienna malts, oats and a combination of Northern Brewer, Simcoe and Azacca hops.

Thunder Road Brewing Company:  Double Pacific Ale (8.4% ABV; 50 IBU) a strong Australian-style ale.  Pacific ale is an emerging style that uses fruiter hops grown in Australia and New Zealand, for this US brew the team used Aussie galaxy hops and a combination of malts for smooth, tropical notes.

Surly Brewing Company:  Risen (8.4% ABV; 50 IBU) a coffee and oak, double brown ale.  This lavish brown ale was brewed with over 100 pounds of locally roasted coffee and was rested on oak for a toasted finish with extra complexity.

And our bonus beer, thoroughly befuddling our tasters, is Dogfish Head’s gluten-free Tweason’ale:

For our first new 12-ounce 4-packs in nearly half a decade, we replaced the classic barley foundation of beer with a mild sorghum base. The hints of molasses and pit-fruit are balanced by vibrant strawberry notes and a unique complexity that comes with the addition of a malty buckwheat honey.

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