Beer Review: Lagunitas Hop Stoopid

I got my first taste of Lagunitas about two years ago and I have been a fan ever since. I was psyched last summer when I found out that Mims Distributing would be carrying their beers in out area. Mims is the local distributor of Miller, Sam Addams, Sierra Nevada among others including Big Boss. I had picked up several of there beers while passing through Virginia and had especially enjoyed their seasonals. Much to my dismay, their seasonals have been rather few and far between in this area. I can find thier IPA at Harris Teeter, but the only seasonals I've seen in Raleigh were their Lucky 13 and one of their Frank Zappa series "We're Only In It For The Money." Bruisin' Ales in Asheville (who uses a different distributor) gets all of their seasonals. Needless to say, I was pleased to see Hop Stoopid at Sam's Blue Light in Durham, hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I first tried this beer at Tyler's in Durham while Lagunitas was their featured brewery and remember enjoying it. I poured the bomber into a Duvel snifter to reveal a nice crisp bubbly orange with a great frothy eggshell head. The aroma was a nice amount of crisp citrus hops with a hint of pine and a nice backing of sweet malts. The taste wass a nice balance of crisp citrus and pine hops with a decent amount of sweet malts backing them up but leaving a nice bitter hop finish. The beer was fairly light, crisp and refreshing with well hidden alcohol that shows a little stronger in the finish. This one was very enjoyable on a hot summer-like night, and hopefully it and Lagunitas' other seasonals will become easier to find.