Big Boss High Roller IPA

Brewed by Big Boss Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Raleigh, North Carolina USA

Bottle. Slightly cloudy olive-amber with a small beige head. Lots of floral hops in the aroma with a hint of burnt malts. Extremely bitter flavor with some backended burnt malts. Finishes nice & bitter.

Bottle. Hazy orange with a good sized offwhite head. Huge fruity and grassy hop aroma, a touch medicinal. Sweet caramel malts, decent body, with a lot of citrusy and floral hop flavors. Also a touch medicinal here too. Big bitter finish. I would like this beer better without those notes of medicine - or maybe its plastic.

Hazy Orange with a fluffy, big tan head. The stongest aroma I’ve ever experienced from a beer. A huge bouquet of flowers, orange, cheese, stinky german hops? Its not entirely pleasant, but its an experience. In the flavor, the bitteness really hits you hard. Theres just a touch of caramel, but lots of pine, citrus, and a touch of cat-piss. A very interesting beer, hopefully it will mellow a bit with age.

I really hope I’ll like this, for they’ve got me with the label: a cigar-chompin’, furrowed-browed, business-suited gorilla. Looks like Edward G. Robinson as a Silverback. Who is he, the head of the jungle Mafia? The kingpin of the Congo? Like I said, it’s a picture that tickles me, and now we’ll see if the beer does... Very hazed orange, lush, creamy head, actively drifts down, but stays at a good 1/2"...I like, so far... Aroma is bold and juicy, dank citrus, bitter, lightly sour, deep pine resin, and plumb fruit, melon meets grapefruit and mango and pineapple...I like it again! Prickly on the palate, a keen blitz of hops, and a blast of fruit, that same twisted melange sensed in the nose. Quite intriquing. Bitterness doesn’t last too long on the tongue, but never leaves entirely. In fact in hugs the palate, but doesn’t dominate. At times, a touch sweet, even candyish. Apricot Jolly Ranchers. It’s a confounding one, actually, reminds me times of English ales, and then it doesn’t...like an American pale ale, and then not...and then, it recalls certain Belgian ales, that yeast...big fruit, long-lived bitterness, medium bodied, fully flavored...this is a puzzle, but a delicious one. And, again, I like it. A unique interpretation of an IPA, and guess what? I liked it! (Don’t want the Big Boss on my bad side, after all.)

Draught at The Flying Saucer in Raleigh, NC. Orange-brown color, slightly hazy with lasting white head. Not very carbonated, makes for a very smooth beer that is easy on the palate. Flowery hop nose and flavor which is well balanced with the caramel malt flavor. Dry and bitter like an IPA should be. Bitterness lingers. Very good beer.

From the bottle, pours a hazy, pale orangish-yellow. Thick white bubbly head that really sticks to the glass. Aromas of weeds in a field and lightly hoppy. Tastes initially of backyard grass and bitter hops. Finishes bitter on the back of your tongue. This "big boss" is a bad monkey and should be spanked. A little too bitterly grassy for my liking.

Pale clear orange, with a diminishing white head. Straight forward but appealling aroma of grapefruit and resin. Huge notes of grapefruit up front, with a dirty, earthy finish. smooth to begin, but finishes dirty and sticky. Nicely done! Sampled at the 2005 Asheville Brewer’s Jam.

Another solid IPA. More interesting hops than the Top o’ the Hill Ram’s Head IPA which was the beer I tasted immediately prior to this one at the Durham World Beer Festival. Ever-so-slightly-weak on the palate. I need to try more Edenton beer.