Haverhill Leatherlips IPA vs. Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA

From BOS_webalbum
	From dogfishhead

Ok, if you don't account for price, the 90 min. is overall a better cold-one. The dogfish IPA, in all its incarnations, has been hailed as one of the best American IPAs around, and for good reason. The 60 min. is available everywhere in Boston, and it's very often the only trustworthy, ~microbrewed beer on tap. It has an amazing nose. Very flowery, and the 90 min. takes this even further. I almost don't want to drink it because it's so nice to sniff. As the brewery claims, the malt 'backbone' stands up to the extreme hopping very well, and the 90 minute comes out to a very drinkable heavy-hitting IPA. If I didn't know that imperial IPAs like this are usually high alcohol, I wouldn't guess that it contains 9% alcohol. The best thing about the 90 minute is that it is an easy way to distinguish the craft-brew-centric pub from those that carry the 60 minute simply because it sells well.
Now on to the Leatherlips. According to the dude at Wine Gallery Brookline, who introduced this to me, this is The Tap's firs t shot at bottled beer, and I'm very impressed. They get points for being obscure, for being a brewpub, and for smartly putting up a website named http://www.leatherlipsipa.com that simply references the beer's ratings on Beer Advocate and RateBeer, which both rate it very highly. It's not as intense as the 90 minute, but moreso than the 60. It has more of the traditional (?) American IPA bitter hoppiness.
The reason I put these two together is that Haverhill seems to be in much the same position as Dogfish a few years ago - a brewpub with a very popular IPA headlining their entry into the world of widely-distributed bottled beer. Dogfish has begun to annoy me a little, popping up in every TGI Friday's and faux-Irish pub in Boston, so I'm glad someone is on their tails. I don't blame them for selling good beer to bad-beer-bars, but their near-monopoly in the Northeast is not OK. Plus, they charge way too much for the 120 minute, and I really want to try it. Bastards.
Over and out.