Why Didn't Obama Appoint One of These?

Another week, another new beer comes to our fair city. And we need new beers to offset the gloom that these seemingly constant gray skies have been casting on everyone. If we are going to have to put up with Winter in New Mexico, we should at least have sunny skies...and hoppy beers. Because while we can't do anything about the weather except ski or snowboard (and I can't do that, because those things move too fast for me), we can take our pick of IPAs locally. The newest addition is Bridgeport's Hop Czar. Bridgeport claims this one to be an Imperial IPA, and maybe compared to their regular IPA, it is. You see, plain old Bridgeport IPA is a mildly bitter 5.5% IPA, pleasant enough for the masses (enough to have had a keg of it for a New Year's party one year, and you know how I attract the masses), but not something to salivate about. Hop Czar, at only 7.5% ABV, doesn't seem to have that wow factor that an "Imperial" IPA should. And though it has 87 IBUs, there is a big malt presence that keeps the hops from starring in the beer. I'm not writing this beer off, or saying you shouldn't buy it. At $7.99 for a six-pack, it is one of the better deals out there, and Bridgeport makes a good product. I just think that the "Imperial" designation is stretching a bit.