Arcadia Batch 999 Imperial IPA

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

Bottle. Well, MBG Festival mystery still unsolved, but since it says Batch 999 right on the label, I’m rating this one right here. Pours a very strong reddish-copper-amber. Large bubbles, good light beige head, bottle condtioned and unfiltered. What’s with all of the 3 and 4 appearance ratings?? This stuff is bottle conditioned, unfiltered, has a large head, lacing and a wonderfully deep red-amber appearance. Aroma of soily, spicy hops, not terribly bitter, or citric, just extremely juicy. Has that hop-tea sort of aroma, like you are smelling the very leaves that have been boiled. Flavor is bold at first, with spicy hops up front, followed by biscuity malt, light doughy chewiness, more spicy hops notes, and finally a good dose of sweet malty backbone. I have the distinct flavor of honey lingering on the aftertaste on my palate. This is one of the best finishes/aftertastes I’ve had in a while. Medium-full body, no wateriness or thinning. Quite resemblant to the LaConner dry hopped IPA (not as bitter) but similar malt structure (if a touch sweeter than laconner) with an equally good body. No alcohol notes perceptible. Fantastic stuff, wish I had bought the whole six pack.Rerate bottle, in a blind IPA tasting I picked this one as my least favorite of the 5 (this, stone, victory, smutty, bear republic) which is strange. Granted, none of them were particularly bad, so this wasnt terrible. Though I thought it would shine through more, especially as I just had it. It seemed much more aggressive last time. Much more mellow, light bitterness and candied flavors, dry toasty notes, some astringency problems, much less flavorful than I recall. Hmm. I’m going to knock it down a few points, but yet another rerate is in order.
Earlier Rating: 8/4/2004 Total Score: 2.8
2004 draught at the MBG beer fest. batch 999. Pours a light orange almost honey yellow-golden. Moderate but fleeting white head. Smells lightly spicy, quite floral and dry, with some paperiness. Hops are quite refined and toned down, no juicy fresh hops bitterness or piny/sap delight here, but that’s ok. Still smells pretty tasty. Flavor begins with a dry, lightly phenolic/alcoholic shot, which quickly develops in to a grassy/herbal hops flavor. This beer is quite the hops adventure, never getting too bitter or absurd, but never really disappearing either. Unfortunately, the malt was fleeting and in the extreme background. What I found was a light honey flavor that sort of lingered on the palate along with the hops. Interesting and hoppy, but didnt make anyone that I sampled with go back for more.

Golden Hoppy goodness... in an easy convenient carrier.....What else can be said... its hop water period!!

Reddish orange color with a thin off white head and decent lacing. Piney/citrusy hops aroma with some malts in there too. Very faint hop taste(pines) but they came out more as it warmed to become a prominent taste in the beer. There was also more malty sweetness than I would have expected, but it also mellowed as the hops got stronger.. A very tasty beer.

Lightly cloudy dark amber color with a small dense cream colored head with heavy chunks of lace. Caramel coated hops aromas. Lightly citric and pine hops in the nose. Smooth light feel which thickens as it warms and still is very smooth. Initial caramel malt initializes the flavor which is take back by the hops. Mild pine and grapefruit flavors swim through the middle of this one, and then give way to some nice malt flavors again the the finish. Linger has hops resin all over the place which distracts slightly but the flavors of the malt in the next swig help assuage this minor fault. Nice balance and flavor throughout. Thanks John.

pungent citrus hop aroma, beautiful orange/red glow with nice beading and suspended sediment, hoppy with clean bitterness, noticable strength and a medium/full body, reminds me of the west coast!

from the bottle. poured a reddish orange. aroma the hops jumped out as soon as I popped the cap, got grapefruit, pine toast, apples, lemon. flavor, the hops were not as strong as I thought they would be had to let it warm up before they came out nice and strong, grapefruit, pine, a nice sweetness comes out with a slight bitterness after taste.

Reddish brown, with a nice small to medium off-white head. nice hop aroma with caramel notes. Medium bodied with both citrus and herbal hop notes , balanced very nicely with a strong caramel malt backbone. Definately not a bitter, probably somewhere between a regular IPA and a double, but whatever it’s classified it’s just a damn nice beer.

pours a medium caramel color with a off-white almost tan head. Slightly hazy body. Aroma is hops with some caramel earthy types stuff going on. Flavor is much the same with the palate being very refreshing and crisp. This pretty good.