Beer of the Week! 03/11/24

Long Live Vinyl Triangles

Normally $18.99 / Now on Sale for $17.96
New England Style IPA

Just shy of two decades ago when the Craft Beer Revolution was in full swing, Armando DeDona got a beer making kit. He used it, enjoyed making some beer, and continued to homebrew as the years went on.

About ten years later, he was openly, verbally hating his job and dreaming of running his own business, when his wife gave him this challenge — “List three things you love and see if you can make them into a career.” DeDonas could only come up with two — beer & pizza. Someone had just opened a pizza place near him, so he said, “#$%$!! Guess I’ll try beer.” Thus in 2016 — after, first, some time at the University of Sunderland’s Brew Lab in the northeast of England — DeDona started Long Live Beerworks in Providence, Rhode Island. It’s still there in an expanded facility and has a location in Boston as well.

Long Live is all about being a brewpub experience. They brew their beers onsite in small batches and have no flagships. Rather, they keep a rotating tap list offering whatever DeDona and his brewers are feeling at the moment. Fortunately for them, their feelings are pretty mainstream, as they focus on stouts, sours, and hop forward brews.

The Vinyl Triangles is a New England Style IPA bittered with Citra, McKenzie, and Eclipse hops — that’s two Pacific Northwest hops and one Australian hop. It’s an odd bird — a citrus leaning IPA that is just shy of off-dry in the malt, yet still manages to be juicy.

It’s a quiet IPA that isn’t impressive on the first sip, but sneaks up on you with its low-level persistent Mandarin orange and nectarine flavors as you continue. The Vinyl Triangles takes its time. Woe betide anyone who tries this beer as part of a flight in Providence or Boston, because its ride makes the most sense when you’re perched at the bar or a table with either crossword or company and have committed to the pint.