It's a holiday weekend which, obviously, means y'all are lucky enough to get to back-to-back posts from me (before a pre-Christmas in July hiatus). Like yesterday's post, today's beer was brought on by external factors. Like yesterday, we'll get into it.

For now, sit down, crack open a beer of your own, and throw on some metal (click this for that last part; I have you covered). We're doing 3 Floyds' Rites of Ramm.

Munster, Indiana's 3 Floyds is a brewery rooted in tradition. They've been around since 1996 when they started on a shoestring budget and a cobbled-together brewing setup. Sixteen years later, they're still picking up speed--that shoestring, cobbled-togetherness has been replaced by impeccable dedication to their craft and adherence to Germany's beer purity law (which cuts adjuncts from beer recipes. There're only water, hops, yeast, and barley here), both of which has earned the brewery no small degree of renown.  

Rites of Ramm--a spring-release IPA--promises to be a no-frills brew, perfectly in-line with the Reinheitsgebot. At a modest 5% ABV, the ale is, as its creators put it, "...built for the long, arduous road ahead."

The IPA's nose is exactly what I want it to be: sweet, biscuity barley notes that are immediately tempered by a smack of hoppiness. Growing used to the hops, I find they only accentuate that malty sweetness. It's a straightforward bouquet, and one Purrl (who gave my bottle eight whiffs) and I can both get behind.

There's a good deal of piney dankness in the IPA's flavor profile, one that hits first and lingers longest. However, I find the malt sandwiched between this: caramel, toffee, honey, and biscuit. If you stripped away the hops, you'd be left with something reminiscent of a Märzen. As the beer stands, though, it's an honest, mastery-of-the-basics IPA.

Mouthfeel-wise, Rites of Ramm is an IPA: on the softer side of things with a medium body. Really, it drinks like it knows what it is (which is because it knows what it is).

Okay. So, like a good chunk of the world, Michelle and I plowed our way through the fourth season of Stranger Things. And, like that same good chunk of the world, we devoured the season's second part in a single night. 

While it wasn't quite perfect, it was still absolutely one hell of a good ride. Most importantly, it left me wanting more and upset that I'd have to get through another two years (at least) before that more comes. 

Thus, I was in a Stranger Things mood when I found myself at a bottleshop yesterday. Pacing along the build your own six-pack aisle, I decided to grab a beer that I thought Eddie Munson (my new favorite character from the show) would grab. As soon as I saw Rites of Ramm, I knew I'd found my beer. 

Pairing this ale with Metallica's Master of Puppets (if you know, you know) is the correct decision.

Rites of Ramm is a frill-less IPA that showcases a fundamental and all-encompassing understanding of the style. 3 Floyds have outdone themselves with the ale. I'm giving it a 9.5/10; this is something I'll have to stock up on next spring.