Lone Pine Brewing’s Diamond Unicorn DIPA

Hear ye, hear ye; it’s January and now officially proclaimed as Double IPA month in this column. DIPA’s are a common sensation in the craft beer world and take all forms and configurations. What makes it a double you say? Well, malt or grains in a beer’s recipe perform part of the flavor content. Hops and yeast do the rest. When you supply a normal grain bill (average amount), your resulting beer is around 5% ABV. But malt is what makes the wort sweet (sugary water) so the yeast can eat the sugars and make alcohol during fermentation. If more malt is added, the ABV goes up, generally speaking. But if you don’t balance the malt sweetness with hop bittering, the beer remains sweet. Ah, the tender balancing act of beer! My belief in making a DIPA is to put in the desired malt profile you want to make it bigger and then chase that sweeter liquid with a mild balance of a hop variety. When you understand this principle and take into account all of the complexities available in different malt and hop combinations, the ability to make almost any flavor becomes possible. So a double IPA isn’t more bitter with hops, it’s a bigger beer overall.

Now that we understand the idea of DIPA’s, let’s spend this month examining four doubles of unusual and appealing excellence. Our first focus beer is from a brewery fairly new to NH from Portland, Maine called Lone Pine.
Lone Pine Brewing Company has been making great beer for New England since 2016 in the Bayside neighborhood of Portland. They have also expanded into a Gorham production facility in April, 2018, previously owned by Sebago Brewing. Owners Tom Madden and John Paul met in high school and shared a love of homebrewing. John’s strength is marketing while Tom leads the brewing efforts. With a huge variety of different recipes and limited releases, Lone Pine has established a following that both Mainers and New Englanders alike can be proud of. Concentrating on IPAs, and especially dry-hopping (the process of adding hops during fermentation for aromatic notes), Lone Pine has created a host of delicious treats for us to enjoy. With a willingness to hook up with other brewers, they also provide small batch series or one-off recipes inspired by events or collaborations. With all of their creative brewing experience, Lone Pine Brewing will be a company to keep your in your focus. You can visit them at their website at www.LonePineBrewery.com
Diamond Unicorn Double IPA considered to be an American DIPA and brewed in the New England style of hazy, orange juice-looking beer. An intense aroma poured fresh from the 16 oz can was most likely due to the recent brew date found on the bottom of the can was 11/12/19, so it was pretty fresh. Tropical fruits of pineapple, mango, and orange citrus are a Lone Pine trademark. Tastes followed the aroma notes to the letter with intense fruity complexity and yet a slight bitter finish… to be expected. The creamy smooth mouthfeel rounds out the enjoyment features of this wonderful 7.8% ABV beer.
BeerAdvocate.com gives Diamond Unicorn a 90 scoring and has officially achieved an ‘Outstanding’ rating. untappd.com also agrees that Unicorn is excellent. You can find this at Case-n-Keg in Meredith and other fine craft beer providers. Diamond Unicorn is a special release so it won’t be around forever. Find yours and any other Lone Pine brew today!