A buddy of mine works for Oskar Blues in Brevard and we got into a discussion of Gubna and I told him I just almost couldn’t choke it down because of the onions and garlic characteristics from the Summit hops. He proceeded to tell me they had changed the recipe and it was now “delish” or some such phrase. I took the conversation with a grain of salt, but did promise to give the beer another chance. Truthfully when I had seen it on draft after our initial meeting I would avoid it like the plague. I found it to be just undrinkable. Fast forward to last week when I spotted cans from Brevard, NC in a store. I knew I had made a promise to a friend so I decided it was time to bite the bullet and give it a go. Imagine my surprise to find a darn tasty double IPA with no onion and garlic flavors, none, nada, zilch, zero. This beer is fantastic and my only worry now is ensuring I don’t run across a previous batch lingering on a store shelf somewhere. Luckily I know everything brewed in NC is good to go with the new recipe and has the Cascade/Summit blend instead of straight Summit hops. So if you had Gubna in the past and did not care for it, you may want to give it another go if you can be sure it the latest incantation.
If you liked the onions and garlic you are out of luck
10 Friday May 2013
A Elliott said:
I’ll have to give it another whirl. My first few sips were quite enjoyable, and I was impressed by the massive hoppiness. Somewhere around the third or fourth sip it hit me like a sledgehammer — my mouth felt as if I had taken a big bite out of a fresh onion. I managed to block that and struggle through the rest of the beer, but the other 3 cans went to friends who were curious.