Armada’s Dick and Shorty Pineapple IPA and Walkers Butter Shortbread

The Beer: Dick and Shorty is a collaboration brew between Bad Sons and Armada. They brewed this coconut pineapple IPA as well as a stout with the intentions of making awesome Connecticut collab Black and Tans. A noble and calculated endeavour for sure. We missed out on the Bad Son’s stout sadly, but this IPA is great all by itself. I am saving a can for the (hopefully soon) moment I get a can of that bad sons stout. 

I love what Armada is up to, and what’s happening over at the Beeracks as a whole. They have this whole test kitchen vibe that seems to be promoting a lot of collaboration and innovation. Lots of brewers doing their thing together seems like a natural win. 

The beer is a really interesting IPA, the coconut and pineapple are rather subtle, the pineapple pops huge on the nose and on a sip more than the coconut. It’s kind of a creamy citrusy IPA with moderate IBU. 

The Cookie: I do like it when something is labeled “pure butter.” Walkers are Scottish shortbread cookies and have that thick crunch that is more of a dense seperation of a cookie than a crisp kind of bite. They don’t really have a whole lot of flavor on their own, but they are sweet and buttery and they have that one after another kind of thing that makes eating a whole box no-sweat. 

The pairing: I have come to really like the simpler cookie paired with the more complex beer. I think the beer washing down a crumbly shortbread actually brought out some more citrusy fruit and pineapple notes. The dunk with this cookie wasn’t as satisfying as I anticipated, the cookie while dense and crisp isn’t that good at absorbing liquid. Other than that this was a fun and successful pairing.