Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA

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

Pours a golden light amber. Light fluffy head. some lacing on the glass. some hop aroma, citrus. Pretty good taste, moderate body, a little light? Good hops, tho not quite as bitter as expected. Fairly crisp tho. Fairly drinkable tho. OK offering.

Bottle:   Fiery amber, heavy with floaties, good carbonation, moderate sized head, white and frothy, nice lacing.   Aside from the floating sediment, it looks great!   Standard hop resin on the nose.   Straight forward, other than perhaps a touch of citrus peel.   A little hot on the tongue.   Certainly hoppy, some resin like astringency, enough to make it known it is a bigger beer but not enough to really detract.   Good as is, certainly a little green.   I bet 6 months would do this beer real good.   Decent malt base, but could stand to be a touch maltier to balance the hop side of things.   This will appeal to most hop heads tho, and it should.   Body and mouthfeel are moderate to full.   Had it been maltier... you get the idea.   A little fusel alcohol on the finish.   I think with time that would mellow.   Certainly a tasty beer, better than most others, and one that I wouldn’t mind aging for a little bit.

22 oz. bottle from The Party Source. Pours a cloudy orange color with lots of visible sediments and a thick off-white head. Aroma of grassy hops, earthy notes, alcohol, pine, and citrus. Flavor of caramel malts, grassy hops, citrus, yeast, spices, and earthy notes. Earthy is probably the one adjective I’d use for this above all others. The alcohol is not well masked but isn’t overwhelming. Medium bodied, and not as bitter as I expected after smelling it. Pretty solid, but not as special as a 20th anniversary brew could be.

Bottle sampled on 7/3/08: Pours a transparent bright orange with a well-lacing off-white head. Aroma of sweet sugary caramel and fresh resiny grapefruity hops. Body starts fairly full and caramely sweet with good citrusy hoppy balance and a crisp, refreshing bittersweet finish. A nice IIPA.

Pours an orange color, with about a finger of head that dissipates but still leaves a nice thick lacing on the glass. The aroma has some piney hop bitterness in addition to apricot-like sweetness. Bitterness wins out on the initial taste, with a solid malty backbone that has that hint of dark fruit. Overall the hop profile isn’t as strong as most contemporaries of this style, but its still a decent beer that hides its higher abv pretty well.

Malty and not overly hoppy in aroma, I didn’t feel it carried itself as an imperial necessarily, but made for a nice ipa in taste, a stealthy iipa in abv.

Pours a nice copper color. Slightly off-white head. Some lasting power but little lacing. Aroma is of citrus and sugar. Taste is almost like a breakfast blend of citrus fruits with some pineapple thrown in. Nice and light on the palate with some bitterness lingering. I would like some more hop aroma and flavor but a decent offering.

nice AB+V brew. very malt forward both on the nose and back palate. front mouthfeel is still pure iipa, tons of hop bursts. but a lot of bw traits here. nice brew, not thier most refined offering.