Thanks to a very gracious coworker, I got my hands on Terrapin Brewing Company’s Walking Dead Blood Orange IPA this week. Themed beers such as this are all the rage now (see my rundown on one of the Game of Thrones beers here) and that’s all well and good. I’ve grown to really like IPAs since I’ve gotten into the craft beer scene over the past four or five years, although one particular beer a month or so back threw me into a crisis of faith and made me question why I like, or convinced myself that I like such hoppy, bitter brews. I won’t name the beer here, but I was really upset that night, and for the next couple days after that. However, I calmed down and told myself that it was just a fluke, and got back in the world.

As a fan of beer, as a fan of fruit in beer (“man laws” be damned), as a fan of IPAs (or so I still think), and as a fan of The Walking Dead (I like to use parentheses a lot), I figured that this beer couldn’t be bad. And it’s not, at all. It is VERY hoppy – It is an IPA after all. However, the flavoring from the peel of the noble blood orange provides a decent balance, and is very much present on the smell. It pours an appropriate dark red color, in keeping with the theme, and had a decent head upon the initial pour. Devoid of companionship as I write this on this lovely Friday night in New Jersey, I’m taking on the entire 22-ounce bottle by myself, and at a 6.7% ABV, I’m sweating a bit.

As the self-proclaimed “official beer of the undead,” Terrapin’s Walking Dead Blood Orange IPA is brewed with a variety of different hops, malts, and the essence of blood orange, from the peel of the citrus fruit. If you’re into the mighty IPA style, check this one out, because while it is hoppy, it is not obnoxiously so, like many of the double and triple-hopped IPAs out there. Considering the size of the bottle, and the alcohol-by-volume percentage, find someone to share this with, or drink it very slowly.

You can catch new editions of The Beer List every Sunday morning right here at The No Seatbelt Blog (don’t worry, I’m not cracking open beers on Sunday mornings). Until next week, bottoms up!