“It’s all about the hops. Big, fruity, flavourful. Unmistakably a huge IPA.”
Served in an IPA glass. This big, boozy imperial IPA hits the glass with a deep apricot hue that’s capped off by two fingers of off-white foam. It’s reasonably well retained with a streaky drag clinging as it ebbs.
Nice and sharp on the nose with a heady dose of dank pine resins, astringent alcohol, bitter citrus and booze soaked cocktail fruits. Getting a real lemony, almost citronella like sweetness that is nicely countered by a firm caramel malt structure. Excellent depth here as undertones of orange peel, papaya, mango and spicy pepper fills it out. Lovely stuff.
The mouth feel is dense and gelatinous with subdued carbonation. The 9% ABV certainly isn’t timid offering a warming sensation in the mouth and the belly! Can’t find an IBU but it’s actually quite well contained. Medium-full body. It’s like a detonation of hops, booze, citrus and tropical fruits on the fore. The spicy pine resins get in the mix as the assertive bitterness advances in the middle. There’s a nice temperament to it. Just as it begins to peak it gradually eases in to the long, spicy, fruity and bitter finish.
Really loving what this brewery is producing at the moment. Precise and on point representations of every style and this imperial IPA is no different. It’s big in bitterness, fruits, pine and warming booze with that lovely caramel malt sweetness to balance. Solid drop.