“Watch out for the giant mutant vine monsters ready to wrap their spiney tentacles around your throat. This is hop warfare on your tongue. Wow..love that description from a very good brewery from Auckland, NZ. This bad boy is sitting at 9% so we are frothing at the lips to taste!”
We pop the cap and the olfactory onslaught is massive. Huge citrus/grapefruit aroma, with pine resins intermixed through that lovely caramel malt backbone that most good Imperial IPA’s contain. No overpowering booze. Poured into a tulip glass, we get a massive 1-2 finger thick, velvety white head which does not budge. That typical copper/gold hues prevail. High level of carbonation going on here..like it’s over fermented. We sincerely hope not. Luckily that first sip sedated our trepidation..lovely grapefruit bitterness but extremely smooth on the back palate, pine needle, sweet yet adequate caramel malts, possibly some crystal or Pilsner malts as the clarity of the body is clear as day. There is virtually no booze burn.. Just right at the end of the palate you know this is a stronger than normal beer. So balanced. There is an impressive wall of lacing down the glass as we smash this drop..so hard not too! We have a lovely medium body, no overriding bitterness or imbalance. Also of note is the lack of sediment. Completely filtered. This is such an impressive beer. Ticks all the boxes for us. Would be a 10/10 if more full in the body but honestly we don’t care. Highly recommend for IPA lovers.