Two And A Half Hops DIPA by American Solera is a fruit forward hazy Double IPA utilizing Strata and Nelson Sauvin hops. Tangerine aroma compliments mango and fresh melon middle tasting notes to produce a memorable beer. This article covers a review and relation to Tom Crean as a sports reference.
Technical Details for Two And A Half Hops DIPA
- Beer Name: Two And A Half Hops
- Beer Style: New England DIPA
- Brewery: American Solera (Tulsa, OK)
- Brewery website: https://www.americansolera.com
- Purchased: The Cellar in Norman, OK
- Tasted: 12/19/21
- Glass Used: Benshot Golf Ball 16 ounce pint glass
Two And A Half Hops DIPA Scoring Categories
Two And A Half Hops DIPA Scoring Categories:
- Can Design: Jon Cryer is really a crying hop due to his roommate situation
- Appearance: medium thick orange haze 4/6
- Aroma: strong tangerine, mild grapefruit, bushel of green apples on the front end, subtle dankness on the back end 22/24
- Flavor: passion fruit and tangerine at the beginning, transitions to mango and fresh melon middle, herbal and earthy bitterness finish, lingering dry white wine aftertaste 36/40
- Mouthfeel: creamy, syrupy, very dry finish 8/10
- Overall Impression: aroma compliments the flavor profile, but the bitter finish and white wine aftertaste deter from the hop profile. Still trying to get my palette used to Nelson Sauvin hops in hazy IPAs. 16/20
- Total Score: 86/100
- Top level aroma and zesty fresh fruit middle, but the finish and aftertaste are hard to forget. Small amount of alcohol burn due to 8.2% ABV. Strata and Nelson Sauvin hops usually get along in the sandbox, but this batch needs some refining to level up with the rest of American Solera’s DIPAs.
Brewery Background
American Solera is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma and opened in 2016. Founded by the husband and wife team of Chase and Erica Healy. Brewery is located in a 100 year old historically refurbished warehouse at 1702 East 6th Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 74104. Miller-Tippens Construction did an excellent job remodeling and it includes a stylish open fermentation room.
Didn’t take long for American Solera to get industry recognition by being named best new brewery in the United States by Rate Beer in 2016. Produced one of the top twenty beers for 2020 chosen by Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, Coolship Roadtrip. Highly rated lambic ale that was a collaboration with Jester King Brewery (Austin, Texas).
American Solera focuses on brewing foeder aged ales, hazy pales ales and hazy IPAs. Psychedelic can art is used to advertise juicy hazy IPAs that are trending in the southwest USA states. Their double dry hopped (DDH) IPAs are deceptively smooth for beers with 8.0%+ ABV. This brewery’s flagship beers are Slap IPA, Pals Pale Ale and Terpy IPA. Most batches are distributed using four packs of twelve ounce cans or sixteen ounce cans. Current taplist includes oak aged lager, pilsner, imperial gose, English pale ale, pale ale, IPA, DIPA, brown ale, imperial milk stout, imperial stout and hard seltzer.
Tulsa is now a must vacation stop in May 2022, to attend the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club and sample tasty beers downtown at American Solera.
Two And A Half Hops DIPA Background
American Solera has brewed this beer once in late summer/early fall 2021. More details:
- Two And A Half Hops DIPA – 8.2% ABV, Untappd rating 4.11
Chase Healey does a great job describing new beer releases and tasting notes with several YouTube clips produced by What the Ale.
Sports Comparison for this Libation
Two and a Half Men was a successful television series on CBS from 2003 to 2015. Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones were the original cast from 2003 to 2010. Sheen then decided to enter drug rehabilitation in 2011 and his contract was subsequently terminated. Ashton Kutcher replaced Sheen in 2012 and completed three more seasons, before the series ended with 256 episodes. Due to Kutcher being a big Michigan Wolverines fan, I needed to find a sports connection for this posting. Enter the Harbaugh boys and their forgotten brother-in-law.
Harbaugh Family Tree
Jim Harbaugh is currently the head football coach at the University of Michigan and won the Big Ten Conference Championship in 2021. John Harbaugh has been the head football coach of the Baltimore Ravens since 2008. The Harbaugh brothers went head-to-head coaching wise in Super Bowl 47, when the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-31.
John has had consistent winning seasons with the Ravens since that victory and is considered one of the top five coaches in the NFL. Jim ran into a dysfunctional front office in San Francisco and left for his alma mater in 2015. Due to moving “down” a level in football, Jim became the forgotten Harbaugh brother and was replaced by his brother-in-law, Tom Crean, on ESPN highlight shows and podcasts.
Early Basketball Coaching Career
Crean was the men’s basketball head coach at Marquette from 1999-2008. Led the Golden Eagles to the Final Four in 2003 behind an electric shooting guard named Dwyane Wade. Moved to Indiana University after the 2007-2008 season and inherited a mess from ousted head coach Kelvin Sampson. Rebuilt the roster from only two scholarship players and walk-ons in 2008-2009, to the #1 ranked team in 2012-2013 for ten regular season weeks. Led the Hoosiers to memorable Sweet 16 appearances in 2012 and 2013 with a roster full of NBA talent. Was fired in early 2017 and is currently the head coach at the University of Georgia since 2018.
Similarities or Coincidence
Two and a Half Men started in 2003, which is the same year Tom Crean went to the Final Four. Charlie Sheen was removed from the show in 2011, when Crean was hard at work rebuilding the Hoosiers into a Big Ten and national power. When Ashton Kutcher got the call to fill in during 2011, Crean’s team was must watch viewing on all sports networks and his name was linked to numerous head coaching job openings in college and the NBA. He stayed on at Indiana about one-to-two seasons too long, but took his firing like a professional man.
Six Degrees of Separation
Crean has been keeping a low profile at Georgia since 2018, but he’s teaching kids the fundamentals of basketball and how to be prepared for life after college. Seems like he’d fit right in to a television comedy series based on two brothers and a nephew. That is almost six degrees of separation from Ashton Kutcher, as long as you divide by two.
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Cheers and keep it classy everyday!
