I must confess that when I first heard Tommy-knocker beers were coming to Alabama I was markedly unexcited. Those of us immersed in beer-geek culture are prone to getting caught up in the hype over certain “celebrity” brands. Lots of beer people go on quests looking for particular brews from Stone, Mikkeller, Russian River and many others. Those breweries have earned a cult following for one reason or another.

But Tommyknocker has no cult following I’m aware of, at least not in this part of the country. And before the brewery’s products arrived in our state I’d only previously had Tommyknocker’s Imperial Nut Brown Ale —a very good beer but not one that had left an indelible impression in my mind. So when I heard that Tommyknocker beers were headed our way, I was happy about the prospect of more variety becoming available to Alabama beer drinkers, but I expected beers that might be a little above average at best.

Happily, my expectations were exceeded by a wide margin. I still haven’t tried all the new (to us) offerings from Tommyknocker, but one in particular deserves high praise: the Pick Axe Pale Ale. And coming from me, high praise of an American pale ale (APA) is a pretty big deal. I’m a hophead who loves intense India pale ales (IPAs), a style that’s something of a big brother to APAs. I’m easily bored by the more reserved style, especially since APAs were one of the most common beer styles in Alabama before our 6% limit was raised.

Two things set this beer apart from most other APAs I’ve had: the bold hops flavor and the specific hops that are used.

Hops added to beer early in the boiling process primarily contribute bitterness. Conversely, hops added to beer late in the boiling process add a lot of flavor without much bitterness. Thus the adjective “hoppy” is a bit tricky, since it can mean a beer is especially bitter or that the beer has a lot of flavor coming from hops (or both).

It is clear that Tommyknocker used no more “bittering” hop additions in Pick Axe than you’ll find in most APAs, but they used considerably more late additions (and dry hops) to contribute an incredible hop profile without a lot of bitterness. To achieve an even more complex flavor, they didn’t use any Cascade hops, opting instead for Columbus as the dominant flavoring hop. That’s important because Cascade is widely overused by American brewers. If you’ve ever had Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, you’ve had the original Cascade-dominated American pale ale. Cascade is a wonderful hop, which explains its popularity, but if you drink a lot of American pale ales you’re going to get tired of it.

By avoiding Cascade hops Tommyknocker produced an APA that tastes unique. This is my new favorite American pale ale.

“Hopped Up” is a weekly brew review by Danner Kline, founder of Free the Hops and co-organizer of the annual Magic City Brewfest. Send your feedback to danner@freethehops.org