Two Roads Route of All Evil

While I named this blog Hoppy Boston, and I do tend to center on my current home state of Massachusetts, my goal was always to cover breweries from across New England. I have lived in New England my whole life, the first 22 years in Maine and then Massachusetts, along with a two year hiatus to Connecticut for my post-doc. I moved to CT just as the craft beer scene in MA was starting to ramp up, and I was disappointed in the initial selection of beers in my temporary home state. Naturally, as soon as I moved back to Massachusetts, a number of new and exciting breweries started to open in Connecticut. Relatively few of these breweries have expanded to the point where they distribute their product North, I really need to find an excuse to do a CT beer tour in the near future. One brewery that has recently increased production and distribution though is Two Roads Brewery in Stratford, CT. Two Roads makes a wide variety of year-round, seasonal and special release beers that are now widely available in MA. One of their winter releases is Route of All Evil, a black IPA that is a mixture of dark malt flavor and aromatic hops from the Pacific Northwest. Two Roads Route of All Evil also has one of the creepiest labels you’ll see on a craft beer bottle, featuring a character that looks like the clown from “It” on a small tricycle. Route of All Evil is available during the winter on draft and in 12 oz. bottles.

Two Roads Route of All EvilTwo Roads Route of All Evil pours a midnight black with a moderate khaki-colored head. The scent is mostly hops, piney and floral, with a little dark malt. The taste is hop-forward, notes of lemon, earth and trees with a solid hit of bitterness.  There is also plenty of malt, touches of coffee, chocolate and molasses. This beer definitely has a nice balance between the hops and malt, exactly what you look for in a black IPA. The beer is medium bodied with a pleasant bitter kick and moderate alcohol at 7.5% ABV. This is a very solid version of a black IPA, the hop selections are on point for the malt profile, which is usually the biggest challenge with black IPAs. Hoppy Boston score: 4.5/5.

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