Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield; (And what is else not to be overcome?) That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me, to bow and sue for grace With suppliant knee and deify his power, Who from the terror of his arm so late Doubted his empire[.] (I, 106–114)

– Satan
John Milton’s Paradise Lost

While writing the review for the ‘Gotta Get Up to Get Down’ WISEACRE Brewing Company‘s beer last night, I drank this up, quickly, easily, and very happily. Getting home from work, and writing up the review, and reading over AJ Brechbiel’s first entry with Default Brewing: Cheers from Default Brewing! I had my first can. Walked my dog Leela across town, and came back to watch the Survivor Series and the latest Rick and Morty episode, I had my second can of this. Wish I had an entire four pack, or six pack, or eight pack, or twelve hundred pack of this delicious, super tasty, super juicy, fantastic brewski.

The beer mail that contained Southern Prohibition’s Paradise Lost, as well as the several others that I’ve reviewed: Crosstown Brewing’s “Boat Drinks: Pina Colada“, WISEACRE’s “Adjective Animal” and “Gotta Get Up to Get Down“. (I didn’t show the duplicates in the picture.) And for reference point, that’s Leela providing protection for the beers in the background. (She is a border collie pure breed, rescued, and she is named after Turonga Leela from Futurama.)

So now, as I sit watching another Flyers game and also switching back and forth with the Monday Night Football game of Rams vs. Ravens (go Rams I guess…..) and even jumping to RAW occasionally, I’m sipping on another Southern Prohibition beer – CROWD CONTROL – a double IPA. The green can in the above picture.

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..”

John Milton, Paradise Lost

For this review, I’m reviewing the Double Dry Hopped version of Paradise Lost. They have released cans of both the Doubled Dry Hopped and the regular version of Paradise Lost. The both have similar, but different can artwork.

Beer: Double Dry Hopped Paradise Lost
Brewery: Southern Prohibition Brewing
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 8.1%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: Like the title says, Paradise Lost that’s double double dry-hopped.

The Non-Double Dry Hopped Untappd Write-Up: Deep golden and opaque, Paradise Lost is our hoppiest beer to date. Massive tropical fruit and pine aromas escape the top of the glass thanks to the dose of Lupulin powder and a heavy handed double dry-hop. Clinging to the flaked oats like a life preserver, hop oils remain in suspension creating full flavors of peach, mango and pineapple. This is a beer celebrating our fondness of hops and how we utilize them, and like all IPAs it is meant to be drank fresh.

Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering: but of this be sure, To do augh good never will be our task; But ever to do ill our sole delight: As being contrary to his high will Whom we resist[.] (I, 157–162)

– Satan
-John Milton, Paradise Lost

Firstly, I could go all day quoting Paradise Lost, as its an incredibly easy book and piece of work to quote; plus its just a fantastic piece. So much so that many Christians believe much of whats written in it as Christian faith through and through. Similar to Dante’s Divine Comedy (aka Dante’s Inferno) where the imagery is so succinct, so profound, and so deep, that many Christians believe much of what Dante and Milton wrote are on the same level as The Bible itself.

But I’ll digress from Paradise Lost; the book and piece of fiction, and instead describe and review Paradise Lost – the beer, the fantastic, juicy, dank, tasty beer.

Appearance is very much keeping with the tradition of New England styled IPAs. Bright orangy glowing deep yellow to golden orange juice looking beer. Its hazy, its juicy, its dank looking. Its completely non-see-through-able. There is no sediment, and its probably filtered, but just the process makes it look so deep and dank and heavy. This is just one of those beers that looking at it you know its going to taste good.

Then you get to the aroma, and you are definitely sure its going to be good. It is just a straight up juicy punch of hops in your face. This is a very fruity, very juicy hopped up beer. All kinds of notes of peach, mango, pineapple, full on upfront assail and assault you. Then just to keep you on your toes, you get hit by some pine and zest with just a wee bit of earthy hop notes.

And finally, we get to drinking this beaut. And a beaut it is! Firstly its looked delicious, secondly its smelled delicious, and finally – well hot falling angel – it is delicious! There is a whole lotta flavor happening in this beautiful beer. A full glass of this bright orange juice will gift you with a whole lot of wonderful juicy, fruity, flavors. Peach, mango, pineapple attacking your tastebuds like a bunch of angels revolting. (See all of the allusions, and these great literary call-backs I’m doing? There’s some industry, zopes and tropes, and other crap I’m doing here, its like I’m trying to do something great and literary here…. something epic….. something so massive… that it would be like discussing Heaven, Hell, and the beginning of everything leading the end times…… Nawwwwwwww…… I’m just doing a silly beer review; disregard all of that.) Carrying on… this is a very delicious New England stylized IPA. Its very juicy, its very hoppy. You get lots of juice and dankness right up front, with the fruity hops taking the forefront, with the peach and mango in spades with some pineapple. This tails off into a little bit of bitter and interesting pine and earthy hop notes. Making for just a full well rounded, delicious IPA. The 8.1% ABV slowly creeps up on you and by the end of the 16 ounces it lets you know its there. (Just try drinking two of these with no food and having taken a dog for a walk; that 32 ounces of 8.1% ABV will really let themselves be known!)

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: (Regular Version) – 4.1 – (Double Dry Hopped Version) – 4.29 (as of 11.25.19)

“Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven.”
– Satan

― John Milton, Paradise Lost

The count down to the end of the month continues. Still going strong with the blog. And still going strong with my new beer a day. 25 days down, and 25+ new beers, and 25 blog posts done. 5 more to go. With one being Thanksgiving, and depending on any cool “Black Friday Stout” events I’m able to make it to on Friday, a possible special Friday event.

I’d like to try and get out to a new brewery before the month’s end. But with work, and the holiday, I’m not sure I’ll be able to. We’ll see though, and fingers crossed, hopefully I will.

For more great quotes from Paradise Lost you can check out the following sites:
* Good Reads – Paradise Lost Quotes
* SparkNotes – Satan’s Best Quotes from Paradise Lost
* Top 10 Favorite Quotes from Paradise Lost

Hopefully you all enjoyed this more literary bent beer review. I enjoyed writing it. I love getting to combine two of my great passions, reading and and books and beers. So finding a beer that is so literary bent on its own (well, on its namesake anyway) made for an easy choice to review. Now to find a beer named ‘Of Mice and Men’ or ‘Flowers for Algernon’ or perhaps a Star Wars themed ones…. or…. a Space Balls one….. like…. say the “Moon of Vega“. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hint, hint on a future beer review there….

Also, always on the lookout for beer or nerdy themed beers. So if you know of any, let us know in the comments. I’d love to see some different beers I haven’t had or heard of yet and to do beer reviews of them.

Hopefully you all liked the review, let us know in the comments, let us know on FaceBook or Twitter. Let us know by clicking the subscribe so you can read more reviews. Or let us know by clicking the like or rating this post. We, all of us here at The Beer Thrillers, appreciate all the feedback we can get. It’ll help us grow and get bigger and better, so please let us know!

Cheers and enjoy everyone!

-B. Kline