Archive for the tag “Imperial IPA”

08 Apr 2014

The Maharaja – Avery Brewing Company

maharaja_bttl

10.2% ABV, 102 IBUS, 21 degrees Plato
Purchased at Corti Brothers ($7.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into pint glasses.

This famed Double IPA is part of  Avery’s “Dictator Series” (along with their excellent Czar, a Russian Imperial Stout that we reviewed here ), and it pours a deep gold with a frothy, eggshell white head.  Classic DIPA aromas make an impression on the nostrils even two full feet away from the glass. Upon closer olfactory inspection, Maharaja offers a very sweet nose of fruit syrup, strawberries, browned toast, and honey, an aroma that doesn’t seem like it could possibly be the prelude to a triple-digit IBU beer. The first swallow follows the lead of the nose, doling out honey-drizzled fruits like strawberry, peach, and pineapple, but ending in a wave of hop bitterness that closes on a note of spiced crackers. Maharaja is thick as tree sap and sweet as syrup, with a malt presence that is overstated for my taste, and an almost tyrannical mix of tastes that varies from spicy to sugary to full-on hop burn.

toasts-3   3 Toasts

Maharaja

 

toasts-3.5   3.5 Toasts

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26 Mar 2012

Pliny the Younger (Russian River Brewing)

11% ABV
Purchased at Pangaea and poured into miniature wine glasses.

His Notes:

The legendary limited release Imperial IPA from Russian River pours a clear, pale, hay yellow with a minimal white head.  It smells of citrus trees, melons, freshly cut pine, and a little bit of bubblegum.  Pliny the Younger offers a very complex mix of bitter and sweet notes on the palette, but it’s subtle and nuanced on both sides of the equation.  The pine bitterness is so fresh it’s practically zesty, with more pine needles than palette-wrecking pine resin in the long and lingering aftertaste.  There is a dry, cakelike texture to the sweetness, as well as a mixture of melons and citrus fruits, but it’s the oily bitterness that dominates the tongue as those other flavors fade.

  4.5 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4.5 Toasts


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30 Jan 2012

Retribution Imperial IPA (High Water Brewing)

9.5% ABV
Purchased at Taylor’s Market ($6.99/22 oz. bottle) and poured into tulip glasses.

His Notes:

Retribution pours a brackish orange with a creamy white head and a fruit salad of aromas on the nose, including peaches, bananas, strawberries, and guavas.  Peaches are also present on the palette along with freshly mowed grass, giving the beer a cleaner and less resin-y finish than most Imperial India Pale Ales.  The flavor profile is more focused on fruit and butterscotch malt than pine and hay, with even a little toffee and brown nuts emerging on the periphery.  It’s more clean and refreshing than most brews of its’ type, and it should pair better with food than more hop-tastic IPA beers like Sculpin or Torpedo.

  4 1/2 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4 Toasts


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01 Jan 2012
2 Comments

Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale

7.85% ABV, IBU 63.21, O.G. 1.085
Purchased at Taylor’s Market ($10.99/6-pack) and served in pint glasses

His Notes:

This “substitute” beer, a panacea by Lagunitas for their inability to produce the popular cold-weather seasonal Brown Shugga in calendar year 2011, pours honey gold with a thin white head.  The smell is strong with citrus, grass, and that unmistakable sugary Lagunitas malt.  An expected orangey sweetness on the tongue gives way to a lingering bitterness and warming, slightly peppery flavors.  This is less a traditional “holiday ale” than a semi-“traditional” Lagunitas strong/sweet, high-gravity hybrid ale, like a west coast IPA augmented with mild pepper spice.  Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale isn’t too far out of the Lagunitas box, but it grows in intrigue and heat the longer it stays on the tongue.

   4 Toasts

Her Notes:

  4 Toasts

Posted in Beer Review, Imperial IPA and tagged , ,

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