I purchased a few beers from Van’s Liquor. I picked up more of the New Glarus Imperial Saison which I reviewed earlier in the week, along with a special release from Goose Island, and the Sam Adams Longshot pack containing the winners from their homebrew contest. This pack contained the Traditional Bock, Cranberry Witbier, and the Double IPA. Today I will review the Double IPA also known as an Imperial IPA. In short, in a double IPA you can expect a big hop aroma, a lot of hop flavor and assertive bitterness. You should also see some balance between the malt and hops, even though the hops take center stage, there should be enough malt to hold up to the hops, but should not approach the sweet and malty levels of a barleywine. In the end, just take your favorite IPA and multiply it by 2 and you should get the idea of what to expect.
This double IPA was the winner of a Sam Adams homebrew contest, so if you really like this beer, it is proof that a person can make beer like this at home, and if it interests you I suggest you head down to Grape Grain and Bean and set yourself up with a homebrew kit ASAP!
The first thing that hits me about this beer is that I can smell flowery hops off the pour and I don’t even have the glass to my nose yet. I poured it on the counter top and the hop aroma was strong enough for me to smell it from 2 feet away! This prompted me to lift the glass to my nose to get a good sniff. The aroma is very nice, mostly of flowery American hops, but there is some underlying citrus as well. It is a very well blended hop profile, with the flowery hops, and the citrus is a nice combination of some grapefruit, lemon, and a small bit of sweet orange and a hint of pine. Aside from the very complex hop aroma, you get a sweet malt aroma as well, mostly caramel and not much else. But this is evidence that there will be enough malt to support the hops in this one.
I almost forgot the appearance in this one, because the aroma stole the show. The beer poured a real nice dense head that lasted for several minutes. The beer is a dark golden amber color with some haze, I doubt this beer was bottle conditioned so I am thinking maybe residue from some dry hopping?
Flavor is where this beer leaves me just a little bit. Don’t get me wrong it is very good, and quite large which is what it should be, but it appears to be a bit out of balance for my taste. The hop flavor is complex and incredible. There is some hints of pine and grapefruit and just a thick juicy hop cone sitting right in your mouth. How great is that? Pretty great I would say. But there is just a little something off in the finish. The bitterness is OK, but it is so tongue coating that it leaves an impression of chalky dryness. The malt is very nice, with a sweet and soft caramel flavor that starts off balancing the hops nicely until the hops just beats the crap out of it. You can obviously taste the alcohol in this beer as well, not only in just the nose, but the flavor as well. I believe this beer weighs in between 9.5% and 10% ABV. This style should be very hop assertive, which it is, but I think that one of the hop choices may not sit so well the beer. It is possible that due to the hop shortage, Sam Adams may have had to substitute one of the original hop choices for one with a slightly higher level of cohumulone, which is what I think is giving the beer that odd chalky dry bitter finish. The mouthfeel of the beer is medium and has no real astringency I can attest to. Carbonation is on point as well.
I don’t want you to get me wrong, this beer is a very good example of an Imperial IPA and I am enjoying it. But when evaluating beer you have to take the good with the bad, and in this case the good outweighs the bad. But you still need to acknowledge all aspects of what you perceive. So in the end, I give this beer a solid B. I have had the original beer that this homebrew was modeled after, which is called Pliney the Elder and is brewed by Russian River Brewing in California, and although it is almost as enjoyable as it’s inspiration, it just falls a touch short. However, I still not regret drinking this one bit.
-Jason Johnson
