Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA

Brewed by Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Boonville, California USA

22 oz. bottle from Plaza Liquors - Pours a clear copper color with a one finger thick light tan head. Lively carbonation. Light lacing. Has a spicy, floral hop aroma. Flavor is citrus and pine hops. Medium body. Bitterness lingers a bit. A decent IPA

Bottle. Muddled mess. Pour leaves one entirely un-excited; crystal clear, clean burnished copper color, small off-white head that quickly clears to a thin layer of foam. Aroma immediately smacks of pine tar and sweet caramel, though both on the muted side. Flavor is entirely all over the place. Very un-aggressive bitterness for a DIPA, but the booze heat sure shows up immediately. Hop flavor is present, but muddled and confused- notes of pine, resins, minty earthy notes, and some typical C-hop lemon citrus. All over the place, but not assertive or interesting. Caramel sweetness from the nose clams down in the flavor, but likely due to being "balanced" out by the booze and sweetness. Palate non-impressive or offensive- on the thick and stick side, as one would expect. Not an impressive DIPA, and certainly would have expected more from Anderson Valley.

Bottle: Poured a clear light copper color ale with a large pure white foamy head with good retention and some great lacing. Aroma of bitter hops with some notes of citrusy hops and some floral undertones. Taste is also very well balance between bitter and citrus hops with some good floral notes and a very solid dry caramel malt backbone. Average body for the style with good carbonation and no apparent alcohol. Nothing extraordinary but solid take on the style.

A fairly pleasant aroma. The finish is a little too bitter for my taste. I prefer a more hoppy finish, with this just seeming bitter for the sake of bitterness.

Amber color, smell is really strong. The taste is just pure hops, and it finishes bitter, too. Bitterness and alcohol - it’s just a bit much. Not too enjoyable.

Pours orange pale color with cream colored head that fades pretty quick. Aroma is of yeast and citrus. Taste is grapefruit, pine, and some vanilla, bread-like qualities from the malt base. Quite a bit of co2. Bitter finish lingers. Nothing really stands out here.

Bottled at Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Pours out in a clear pale amber colour with a rich dense white foam. Hoppy and a bit yeasty aroma of orange-peels, hay, resin and grass. Nearly full-bodied with notes of orange-peels, raw yeast, grass, nuts and mild grapefruit. Really bitter finish of orange-peels and grapefruit with sharp undertones of bakers yeast, pepper and alcohol.

golden brown with nice white head. modrate carbonation. nose of mild hop. flavor begins of just mild hop bitterness, a lot of hop flavor, likely cascade and amarillo amongst others. a lot of malt sweetness at the end with some alcoholic warmth. overall the hop component is not that unique. personally, i enjoy the large malt component in a double ipa, but in this case the hops aren’t unique enough to shine through it. not bad, not exemplary