Arcadia Batch 999 Imperial IPA

Formerly brewed at Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

Murky dark orange color out of the bottle with a whispy cloud of a head. The nose has a toasty malt edge to it with pineapple and orange peel hops. Very well balanced IPA with caramel sweetness and fruity malt tones of apple with the orange rind, pine and hop resin rising gently in the finish. Very nice IPA.
Earlier Rating: 7/29/2004 Total Score: 3.9
On tap at the ’04 Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival. The program called it the Batch 999 Imperial IPA. Oragne/amber color with a sfluffy off-white head. Caramel/toffee sweetness for a foundation with lots of pine and orange rind hop flavors on top. Nicely balanced and a solid beer for this still.

dominant hoppy aroma with a hazy orange appearance....complete grapefruit flavor with some nice sweet notes; very piney taste also.... nice palate especially for such a hoppy beer

Dark brown color, somewhat cloudy. Medium sized white foamy head. Aroma is grapefruity and piney, with a touch of malt sweetness. A medium bodied IPA. Malts are caramel, fruity and sweet. Hops are grapefruity and piney. Extremely smooth tasting IPA. Nice big resiny hop taste takes a while to ‘kick in’. This may be one of the best-balanced IPAs I had in a long time. Nice beer. Thanks to JCW for this one. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Opaque, chill-hazed rufous. Fat, frothy foam throws huge clumps of sticky lace on the glass. Caramel drenched floral hop aroma with hints of pine-laced citrus, apples, and phenols. Creamily full, yet expansively spritzy. Much emptier than the aroma, with airy phenols inhibiting the body. Fairly alcoholic, as well, with a leafy/citrusy hop mixture colliding with toasted malt sweetness. Lush caramel struggles to thicken the body, inevitably taking the backseat to a bizarre display of tart apple acidity and spicy phenolic dryness. Earthy (Fuggles?) bitterness peaks at the finish alongside grainy apple textures and harsh acidity which only compound the chalky/crushed mineral astringency. Very similar to their bottle-conditioned Imperial, when aged, the yeast has rendered this airily empty and astringently sour. Perhaps they should stop b.c.-ing until they find a yeast that doesn’t wreak of infection after spending only a short while in the bottle. Such a disappointment, because without the infection, this must be stunning.

This beer is a dark copper color with a medium beige head that disappeared rapidly. Thin and sticky lacing. The aroma is fruity, with some citrus hops and spice. Medium-bodied with a somewhat off-balance flavor profile. Piney hops, sour fruit and malt don’t seem to gel much. The finish is pine and grapefruit, with a sourness that is difficult to characterize. Not a bad beer by any means, and maybe I missed something but this beer just didn’t click for me on some levels.

Light mahogney color with a thick foamy white head. Big fresh hop aroma with notes of grapefruit and toffee. Very bitter initially with hops exploding on the tounge. Some fruity, citric notes, mainly grapefruit with some lightly sweet and toasty malts with a slight hint of rye coming through late to balance things out. Nice IPA, thanks santa.

Densely clouded amber hue, thick head formation. Piney grapefruit aroma, mild seasonal spice (not sure if this is a winter seasonal, but very fitting),.sweet candy sugar and mild caramel. Complex palate, grapefruit harsh bitterness jumps out immediately, but it’s very well balanced with candy cane sweetness and mild cookie dough. Biting citrus in the finish but again very well tempered by a long lingering candy aftertaste. Excellent brew. Special thanks to mikemcallister.

Pours a lightly hazy mahogany copper with a thick, thin-lacing cream-colored head. Aroma is busting with fresh grapefruity hop resin and a touch of crystal malt. Body has a good dry caramel maltiness to it that balances the fresh bittering hops very well. I guess this falls into the English IPA category due to the malt billing despite the aggresive and appealing hoppiness. A very unique and flavorful beer nonetheless. Many thanks to wohlfs and Silphium for this brew!