Big Boss High Roller IPA

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

This is one for hop-heads as it is a highly hopped IPA. Actually, the most highly hopped I’ve encountered. As such there is no middle ground for beer afficianos. You either like it or you hate it. I love highly hopped beers so it’s my favorite IPA

Nicely hoppy. this beer is not too full of molasses. It is one of the few beers that I have purchased in some time that I came back and got the same thing the next week.

Draft at the Shockoe Craft Beer Festival, 8/26/06: Nice reddish amber. Beautiful nice piney hoppiness dug into a solid malt hole. Medium citric bite. Excellent IPA.

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.

Pours an orangish amber. Nice floral nose with a good citrus bite. Nice bitter bite up front with very little malt balance. A good citrus hop finish that dries and stays for awhile

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.)

From notes 8/12/05: Pours a slightly murky burnt orange. Still. A meager head formed but immediately reduced to just a thin collar of light beige foam. Large loose splotches of lace cling to the glass but eventually slip back down into the liquid. Aromas offer up a buffet of pine, citrus, and oil. Nice scents of grapefruit-drizzled pine cones. A sugary sweet cotton candy air lingers insidiously in the rear. Flavors are big and ballsy with a smack in the face of bitterness. Maltiness is rather subdued at first as the hop bitterness thrashes about. Borderline harsh, but mellows out just enough to enjoy the abuse. Pine oils, crushed pine cone, grapefruit pith batter the palate. The tongue shrivels in delight. Solid mouthfeel. Aftertaste of dry bitterness haunts you. I couldn’t just take a sip...this beer demanded gulps. I must get more. I must.

This was one of those beers that catch you by suprise. Clear copper color with a moderate off white head. Wonderful grapefruit citris aroma with a semi-sweet herbal note. Flavor is well balanced and hoppy throughout with an interesting twinge of sourness on the finish that is quite appealing.