“After chewing your way through a fat malt body, you’ll be smacked in the face by a dogged bitterness. Aggressive pineapple and tropical aromas ascending from new world hop varieties will see you pleading for a super hopped. Ew world order”. Ok then..sounds like a challenge.
Poured into a pint to absorb the 500ml bottle as much as possible, we get divine juicy fruit tropical salad aroma mixed with malt and alcohol that is in the background. So good. Amazingly clear light Amber colour with subdued carbonation seen bubbling up. The 10mm White head retains magnificently and hardly budges. First sip yields big caramel malts, strong booze astringency, decent offerings of pineapple, milder mango, some citrus, resin, and some gentle spice on the back palate. We note on the glass it says 84 IBU, and it’s a slow burn of bitterness in the mouth but it’s well contained given the malts. Wow we feeling the 9% alc vol already. This could get ugly. There is full body here, definately chewable. Not a great deal of carbonation in the mouth and thank goodness as it would be too much on the palate. The main flavours here are tropical fruits, with some grapefruit citrus in the background. Aggressive pineapple is a tad generous but we get where they coming from. We have plenty of imperial IPA’s, from Dogfish Head to Pirate Life brewing, and this isn’t in that league but it’s a damn fine offering. It’s big, bold and dangerous if consuming more than one. Tread with care.