Alpine Beer Company Exponential Hoppiness

Brewed by Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Alpine, California USA

growler shared by I forget who in line at the port anniversary party....great nose of grapefruity and piney hops and the flavor is much the same with the great interplay with the malts perfect balance...just a tad bit below pliney inmy opinion .....damn good job though pat!

Thanks to Josh for sharing this growler! Pours a lightly hazy golden amber with a medium bubbly off white head. Aroma of pine resin, caramel malt, toasted notes, grapefruit, light oak, orange...nice a hoppy with a great malt balance. Flavor of tea, pine, dry hopped grassy notes, grapefruit, citrus, oak, caramel and some toffee.

Growler from Padrefan98, big thanks for this unexpected gift Jon. Pours a clear deep orangey copper with a large fluffy white head. Aroma is pure heaven. Tons of fresh hops balanced with the perfect touch of malt sweetness. I swear I could sit here and smell this all day long. Medium bodied that is slightly dry and finishes bitter but not overly bitter for the giant hop aroma. Flavor is full of fresh citrus hops, grapefruit rind, cereal, grain, and caramel and help balance this one out. I wish a little more of the sweetness from the aroma followed inot the flavor but still one fantastic beer.

Pours dark copper with a slight haze. A fullish rush of fine carbonation swells up a inch-plus head of off-white. Ripped sheets of clingy foam, and a full coverage skim coat remains throughout. Pungently hoppy with oak-laden malt undertones. Grapefruit pith, candied bitter orange peel, pine resin, freshly turned earth, and oak bark. Alcohol is everpresent with each whiff. Sticky, sappy, chewy mouthfeel. Tongue- coating, and on the thick side of medium. Bitter spruce sap, citrus oils, leafy hops, and juicy malt lead off the pallet. An oaky dryness steps forward along with warming alcohol. Lingering bitterness, ripe fruit, and forest floor are a mainstay for each sip. A whallop of grapefruit, pine needles, and oaky malt. Quite malty for an IIPA, and approaching barleywine territory, but stopping short. A bit numbing in the nose and pallet, with the onslaught of hops and alcohol. Similar to Hopsickle, but more malty, and the oaking adds some nice depth, which rounds out the brew as well. Big ups to doubleo for hooking me up!

Orange amber pour, 1 finger white head. Smells of grassy bitter hops. Taste citrus then honeydew the bitter. Thank you again pepsican.

Draught Nearly no (yellow) head; hazy orange-ochre beer. Exploding, but very fine mandarine/tangerine hops, breaking out the glass - well, cup. Not overly bitter, but very hoppy (surprise, surprise), bit metallic and again marked tangerine/kumquat flavours. Quite oily MF, just a tad too thick & alcoholy to be refreshing, but still... Deeply impressed with this. Explosive overhoppiness, citrus bittering - exactly what it is NOT. It’s actually very inviting.

On tap at Obriens. Golden murky amber with a thin white head. Enticing lemon, banana, citrus aromas. Smooth and slightly syrupy on your palate. Great bitter hops and perfect light malt. Sweetness hides any alcohol . Pine like finish! Dangerous indeed. Awesome. Beer!!

A well carbonated pour from the growler easily produces a three-finger thick, creamy textured, light tan colored crown of froth. The beer is a lightly orange tinged, full amber color that shows a lightly hop-hazed, orange-copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma is very sticky with hop notes; candied grapefruit, huge lychee, apricot & other tropical fruit notes are quite noticeable even while pouring this brew. A focused sampling of the aroma gets aromatic notes that lean much more towards the herbal / pine side of the spectrum. Though the beer still smells of sticky, sugar preserved hop buds. The sharper side of the hop produces notes of grass, pine sap, some slight chive notes, a huge hemp oil contribution. It is interesting that this was so intensely fruity smelling as I was pouring it, but that a focused inspection of the aroma is much more dominated by concentrated herbal & essential oil components.

Sweet and thick tasting with a ton of residual malt sugars, these are not by any means overwhelming though as this has a huge hop character that easily offsets the malt; in fact the residual malt sugars are not even overly noticeable because of all the hop character. Sharply bitter, with lots of green, astringent hop notes and a finish that tastes like what I would imagine chewing on a fat, juicy, marijuana bud (though there is lots of malt to keep this from becoming over-bearing). Up front and through to the middle some nice, underlying citrus & tropical fruit flavors are found; these contribute flavors of lychee, candied ruby-red-grapefruit, orange-marmalade and peach concentrate. This is clearly dominated by the greener hop flavors; in addition to the piquantly expressive hemp-oil flavor there are notes of chives, mentholated pine, lots of herbal turpenes (rosemary, garlic chive and a touch of sage oil). Thick and chewy, this is approaching a Barleywine in heft, it just retains enough lightness to retain the IPA allusions though. The plethora of hop character also keeps this from every getting sticky or cloying. The malt character is clearly a supporting character, really not noticeable on its own, but it plays a significant role in carrying the hop character.

My second pour of this beer reminds me how very well carbonated this beer is; visually it is quite apparent, but the beer is thick enough that it is not as noticeable in the flavor as one might think, though it does add a certain prickle / lightness to the beer as it flows across the tongue. This beer doesn’t seem to take to warming as much as some, the combination of hops and alcohol gets a bit harsh after a bit.

Big, powerful, overbearing, an exercise in self inflicted tongue flagellation, but is it good. It most certainly is, but it is a bit too astringent & hemp-oil dominated for me. There are times when I can enjoy a scathing, tongue scraping, astringently hoppy beer, but most times I like something a bit more drinkable. Definitely a beer for the enthusiastic hop head. I am not sure if I am getting more discriminating or if I am just getting burned out on over-the-top beers, but this is not nearly as enjoyable as I expected. I really do enjoy excessive amounts of hops in a beer, but it has to have a drinkability and finesse that this beer just doesn’t quite have. Still this is a good beer, though it is one I really only want a 12 oz serving of (luckily I could share my growler, because there was no way I would finish it on my own).