One for the ages

Here's a three-horned approach you should take if you ever visit Eugene, Ore.:

1. Run Pre's Trail. (It's a flat but often rainy 4 miles.)

2. Visit the Pizza Research Institute. (The pie with baked spicy tofu, roasted garlic and black olives is wicked good.)

3. Drink lots of Tricerahops from Ninkasi Brewing Co., preferably at its very modern, very hip tasting room.

With a name like Tricerahops, the beer has to be big. And it is. The double IPA gores you right away with a ridiculous scent of hops. Then you get that piny bite with the first sip. It finished with considerable malt -- maybe just a bit too much for me.

But make no mistake, this beer should never go extinct. It's one of my favorite double IPAs out there.

Ninkasi is a super-cool brewery, as well. It's young -- founded in 2006. But it's one of the fastest up-and-comers in the brewing world. The brewery is named after the Sumerian Goddess of fermentation. The brewery's Web site tells the rest of the story.


The details:
Name: Tricerahops
Brewer: Ninkasi Brewing Co.
Beer Advocate rank: NR
Style: Double IPA
Alcohol: 8.8 percent
Cost: $5 for a 500 ml bottle
My Grade: A
Skinny: It's a dinosaur-big beer with a really piny bite followed by some really strong malt. The only reason it doesn't get an A+ is because the hop bite and malt finish don't match up as well as, say, Pliny the Elder.