Persephone Brewing – Double IPA: Brewed in Gibsons, this Double IPA is brewed at a strength of 9% abv featuring Amarillo, Cascade and Columbus hops. Interestingly enough, this is one of the more expensive DIPA’s on the market, often going for $12-$13 a bottle at private stores (this is where a 10% CAMRA discount is handy). I was actually involved in a twitter conversation about the price of this beer so I thought it was worth trying to see if it lived up to it’s reputation.

Flavour: A little sweeter than I expected, lots of sweet doughy malt, toffee and caramel up front with tangerine in the middle and a huge pine resin bitter finish.

Overall Impression: This beer is nice, but a touch too sweet to rank higher than I did and honestly it is very similar to Driftwood’s Twenty Pounder from a taste perspective.

Rating: I give it a very good rating of 7/10, still a nice DIPA but there are even better one’s out there that are often a bit cheaper. They are however,  still a new smaller brewer so I’ll try this again next year to see how it is.

Food Pairing: I think some spicy thin sliced flank steak would work well here, pairing up with the profile of the beer quite nicely.

It’s interesting that this brewery named themselves after the Greek Goddess of the Underworld Persephone who is also associated with the fertility of vegetation, I guess for their hop farm. I’ll leave you with this really cool looking concept art of Hades and Persephone (source) to think about when you try their beers. Also, their name pays homage to the Persephone from the ever popular Beachcombers TV show, see here for more.