Alpine Beer Company Pure Hoppiness

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

thanks to Fordest for the bomber!
peachy-gold in color with a white head fading to a delicate layer of lace. nose is grass, grass and a more grass. flavor is a lttle floral, a little grapefruit and with a little malt mixed in for good measure. alcohol is hidden perfectly in this IPA. nothing in your face or overpowering here, just a subtle blend of flavors making up a very nice drink, thanks Sean.

On draught at RFD’s (Lupulin Slam 2006): Clear pale yellow-light amber colored body with a large white & creamy head that sticks. The aroma is fresh hops (cirtus, grapefruit), light dishsoap, pine cones, and pine trees. The taste has lots of pine-like hops up front, then earthy, fresh grass, rich hop cones, then has a strange dry, amost bland finish. I’m going to chalk that up to my taste buds recovering from the initial hop assault. Medium bodied, yet very light and crisp in the mouth with fine bubbles that can almost be individually felt.

1998 copper penny color. Nice white head reduced quick. Grapefruit citrus aroma. Body is medium which coats your mouth equally, no sour or astringency related to this brew, nice when lots of hops used. Very good beer

2005 bomber from DarkElf, consumed on 1/26/06. Peachy-copper colored beer, with some lighter straw golden tones, miniscule bubbles rising sporadically and a large and magnificently well retained foamy white head that provides ample, webby lacing. Beer has light sediment on the bottom and is bottle conditioned. The nose screams right away of a mix of tangerine, strong kiwi, light herbal notes and clean, wet, freshly cut, heavy grass (thanks to the hallertauer). The hallertauer addition does wonderful things for the complexity in the nose, as just mentioned and truly creates distinction in a style that is so difficult to do so. It’s so interesting to really smell what I perceive to be juicy kiwi. Certainly the cascade citrus is there, though not in force, with plenty of mixed (red and white) grapefruit. Ok, now I’m getting maybe a bit too abstract. The nose has a strong lasting smell to it as well, and there is no alcohol. Little malt, though what is there is light creamy caramel, bits of soft honey and grains. The flavor encompasses most of the citrus fruits, but gets more poignant with a starfruit meets lemon meets unripe tangerine sharpness. Well received in the intensely tight, miniscule bubbled carbonation that you can pick apart when pressing the liquid against the roof of your mouth. Washes exquisitely over the palate, with flecks of honey drawn across touches of crisp melon, more kiwi, tangerine and grapefruit. Hoppy and satisfying to the last drop, with a hint of fresh yeast, supple texture and no alcohol apparency whatsoever. What is a perfect IPA? Perhaps this dosent have the malt complexity and extreme hop strength/complexity to be called "perfect" but the flavor is damn near flawlessly done. Drinks like a session beer and is flavored like the best of double ipas. Thanks Stephen!

lupulin slam #3. pale gold. grassy and spicy hop aroma. lots of inoffensive bitterness, some pine/citrus. very floral. this is great.

Draft at Liar’s club: Light yellow color with smallish creamy white head. Aroma has lots of citrusy hops, seemed like centennial to me, with a bit of floral honey. Flavor was full of hops, hints of caramel, lemon. Finish is lightly acidic with a moderate bitterness.

Had this at a fest. 2-oz. sample in a snifter. Beer ours a hazy medium-gold color with a small, frothy, white, mostly diminishing head. The aroma fills the bill—it’s hoppy alright. It’s heavy on the hops and not much else, but it’s more complex than most IPA’s I’ve had this far. It contains varied notes of citrus, including grapefruit, orange and lemon, grass and pine / resin and a note of warm honey. The flavor is heavily bitter and ends with an average-length bitter finish. No surprises, I guess. The body was light-to-medium, the texture is watery and the carbonation is soft.

On tap at the Liar’s Club in San Diego. Poured golden with a nice white head. Citrusy aroma and flavor, with a mildly hoppy finish. A fine IPA on tap!