Rating: 4.8/5

Death By Hops by Smog City brewing is a 9.3% ABV Double India Pale Ale.

Released recently at the brewery exclusively, I wanted to pick up this beer to give it a review but mainly to get a growler as well. This is Smog City’s first Double IPA. I have reviewed El Segundo’s Tripple IPA from a growler before so I figured I give Smog’s DIPA a shot too as a lot of Smog City’s beers are awesome.

Aromas:
Dank grassy, floral, piney and grapefruit hops, citrus, dank garlicky, oniony, oily hop scents, biscuit bread, some tropical notes like, tangerine preserves, caramel, toffee, passion fruit, kiwi, prickly pear and berry notes.

Flavors:
Grassy, Grapefruit, floral, pine and herbal hop dankness, citrus, tangerine preserves, tropical notes like mango, kiwi, prickly pear, passion fruit, biscuit bread, garlic and onion dankness, caramel, toffee, berries and honey.

Aftertaste:
Lingering citrus with lots of piney hop goodness and dank hop resin. No alcohol in the taste. A sipping beer but very crisp and refreshing.

Overall:
A very good beer if you like your Double IPAs grassy and herbal with not overpowering tropics. Personally I enjoy more tropical IPAs but this one has enough to keep me interested so the flavors work really well here. It is also very damn fresh so the freshness really helps. The hops really resonate in all aspects of the beer. Worth stopping by again for another growler fill of this!

Anime Corner:
Shampoo from Ranma½ was used in this pairing since I got the crazy idea of linking Death by Hops to Death by Snu-Snu from the Futurama episode “Amazon Woman in the Mood”. In that episode, the main characters travel to a planet where it is ruled by Amazonian women and when they have men around, they kill them by snu-snu which is essentially having their pelvic regions crushed while having sex with these womanly giants. Shampoo, according to the Ranma show is actually an Amazonian woman herself. In the picture we see her almost looking like a giant looking down at the beer and the drinker. Meaning she will kill you!! Also, along with the second picture, when I meant to say she is a killer, well yes!! So if death by snu snu is related to Shampoo, then Shampoo killing is Death by Shampoo or Death by Hops!

Sources:
https://1-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/a/image/1335/86/1335864780033.jpg
http://www.zerochan.net/289079