21st Amendment Double Trouble Imperial IPA

Brewed by 21st Amendment Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
San Francisco, California USA

Yellow brown and cloudy color with a creamy off-white head. Thick lace. Aroma is nice and strong with grapefruit and strawberry with floral notes and some hops in there as well. Flavor is mostly hops, less fruit than I would like. Some strawberry and grapefruit flavor in there. It’s supposed to be 100 IBUs, but I thought it was well balanced. Medium bodied. I like it, but I wish it had a creamier mouthfeel. Doesn’t quite feel like a double IPA to me.

GABF 2009. Pours clear dark yellow with a small, fizzy white head, mostly diminishing with fair lacing. Aroma is heavy malt (cookie, cereal, grain, meal), heavy hop (flowers, grass, pine, resin, citrus), average yeast (sweat, earth) with notes of pear, peach, pineapple, apricot, and honey. Full bodied, creamy texture, average carbonation, and a bitter finish. Long duration, moderate sweetness and acidity, heavy bitterness.

Pitcher at 2009 GABF. 9.8 % ABV per the poster. Pours a nice white head, over a pale, (SRM 5) clear body.....nose is pine and grapefruit (simcoe, cascade) toffee, caramel.....taste is sweet caramel, that is balanced back by the hops....mouth feel is medium, and carbonation low. Even though this tastes really quite lovely, the sweetness of the malt back bone is not totally balanced by the hops.

Draught at the brewpub. I really like 21A’s regular IPAs and was excited to finally see Double Trouble on the board during my recent visit. Orange with a sticky off-white head. The aroma is just a blast of sticky, fruity hops emphasizing floral, grapefruit, and peach qualities. At first sip, DT shows you no mercy. I enjoy plenty of DIPAs out here in California, but this was one of the strongest hop kicks that I have ever had. Despite this, the flavor manages to be relatively balanced with a subtle, but firm malt character. Sweet and almost syrupy, but with so much hop oil and acid that the beer only leaves a brutal bitterness in the aftertaste. The hop flavor retains the juicy citrus of the aroma and carries it all the way through the finish. More along the bigger, burlier IIPAs with a lot of body and malt, but also one of the hoppiest beers that I have ever experienced. A true work of hop-art in liquid form.

On tap in SF. Heavy grapefruit and citrus nose with a beautiful golden orange looking body. Mostly thick and sticky, thick on malt as well, but is definitely overtaken by the hops in a great way. Definitely a good one to snag if you find it somewhere.

From tap at the brewpub. Pours clear and golden orange with a small white head. Solid pinewood and grapefruity hops aroma. Sweet caramel malt flavoured, good smooth mouthfeel. Bitter and fruity finish, very smooth and nicely balanced but certainly with some hops power.

From the Jug at the GABF, Colorado Convention Center 13/10/2007 Small white head. Carbonation. Hoppy aroma. Clear golden coloured fruity and very hoppy with a crisp and bitter finish.