Hop’Solutely a well-rounded ale

“He that buys land buys many stones; he that buys flesh buys many bones; he that buys eggs buys many shells, but he that buys good ale buys nothing else.” – John Ray

Beer: Hop’solutely
Made by: Fegley’s Brew Works, Allentown

Since opening in April 1998, Brew Works has only ever bottled a pair of seasonal beers, Rude Elf’s Reserve and its pumpkin ale. And that work was done on a contract basis through another brewery.

The demand and brand familiarity weren’t quite there to justify expanding the bottled options, but a growing craft beer market in and around Philadelphia helped open the door, according to Jeff Fegley, president and partner in the Allentown and Bethlehem Brew Works.

“There’s really an opening there that wasn’t there before,” he said.

Hop’Solutely marks the first beer brewed and bottled entirely by the family-owned brewery and will be followed shortly by a new seasonal bottled offering, Insidious Imperial Stout.

Brew Works decided to expand its bottled offerings after signing on with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and Coca-Cola Park, which represented the brewery’s first major account outside the brewpubs, Fegley said.

“That’s when we saw the first real value in brand marketing,” he said.

In recent years, demand for craft beers in Philadelphia has blossomed with taps changing continually as drinkers demand the newest microbrew offerings, according to Fegley.

Brew Works is bottling out of its Allentown location with a bottling line that it purchased from a defunct brewery before the new brewpub even opened. Emmaus-based Shangy’s serves as Brew Works’ distributor for the Philadelphia area, and the bottled beers are available in 44 establishments locally and in the Southeast and Northeast.

Insidious is bottled and awaiting labels for distribution in about two weeks as a winter seasonal. Next up is Bagpiper’s Scotch Ale, winner of a bronze medal at the 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver and a silver at last year’s event.

Fegley said Scotch Ale will be a year-round beer set to debut this spring. Brew Works plans to bottle as many as four new seasonals this year, including some type of wit and a lambic, he said.

Web site: thebrewworks.comType of beer: India Pale Ale

British pale ales brewed for the Indian Empire were reportedly made with a higher strength and more hops to protect them on the long journey.

Rating: 4 pints out of 5Beer review: Hop’Solutely comes in a 25-ounce cork and cage bottle. It’s more of a copper-colored beer with, of course, a hoppy aroma, although not quite as hoppy as I expected.

There seems to be a particularly floral nose underneath the hoppiness, which is, in fact, a really nice undertone.

The aroma surprised me and the flavor surprised me even more. A fan of big bold IPAs, I was anticipating a hoppy explosion of sorts, considering the sheer hoppiness of Brew Works’ Hop Explosion IPA, which packs a bitter punch.

Hop’solutely, on the other hand, is more subtle. It has a softer edge on the palate with not as much aftertaste as one might expect from a bottle-conditioned triple IPA weighing in at 11.5 percent ABV. The bitterness is quite mellow with perhaps just even a touch of maltiness.

This could be an interesting option for someone on the fence about IPAs or even IPA training wheels for the uninitiated.

Those same floral notes seem to be drifting underneath the flavor. Does it even offer up just a touch of citrus? I’ve read where brewers indicate a beer offers hints of grapefruit. If you have a hoppy beer with a touch of bitterness, does that qualify as grapefruit?

Anyway, I liked it because of the balance. While I normally enjoy and embrace a much hoppier beer with more of bitter edge, this was a nice well-rounded beer with full body and flavor and a touch of bitterness to make it eminently drinkable.

Ed Sieger’s column of beer reviews and local beer news appears every two weeks in EXPOSED. He can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at esieger@express-times.com.