Clipper City Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3

Brewed by Clipper City Brewing Co.
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Baltimore, Maryland USA

Ah the grapefruit nose - hoppy happiness on my tongue with no bitterness. One of my favs.

Best before date of May, 2006; Sampled December 2005
Pours with a brilliantly clear, copper color that is topped by a frothy light tan colored head. The aroma is just plane sticky with hoppy fat lupulin glands. The aroma is redolent of ruby-red grapefruits that have that mix of sweet citrus notes, tart citric acid, and sharp, floral grapefruit peel oils. The aroma is definitely hop-city, and is quite sublime for any lover of in-your-face American hop-levels. Is there anything else in the aroma? Maybe there is a hint of alcohol at the end, a bit of herbal hop character, and perhaps some accentuating notes of sweet malt, but all of these are quite secondary to the overwhelming grapefruit hoppiness that is found in the aroma.

The taste is soft and creamy up front, with just enough malt/ caramel sweetness to accentuate the citrus-like hop flavor. The finish has a solid, though not overwhelming, hop bitterness to it, which is in perfect balance with the malt sweetness. This beer screams American C-type hop flavors though; everything else is secondary, including the bitterness in the finish. What a fantastic hop character this beer has. It is just so fat and flavorful, it really is like sucking on the nectar from a mythic citrus/hop flower.

I don’t know what it is, but this beer seems to have awoken the inner hop-head in me, this beer is just really hitting the spot right now. Everything is working to accentuates all of the hop notes that I like to see in a beer. As my palate gets used to it a resinous pine-like note begins to become noticeable, and the bitterness in the finish begins to take on astringent mouth puckering proportions that just beg for another sip of this hopaliscious brew. I am pretty sure that I never want to have this beer again, because there is no way it will live up to this singular experience of right here, right now. The quirks of beer drinkery, have delivered me the perfect convergence of time, place & beer; definitely one of the top beer experiences of my life. This is definitely one of those things you can’t explain, you just have to experience it, the beer itself, objectively does not add up to it, but, regardless it happens. Here is to the journey, and the next beer that satisfies the soul.

BOTTLE. Very pretty orangey-amber in color with a nice off-white head. Looks clean and crisp. I hate to reuse a word the brewer used, but the aroma is INTENSE. Lovely flowers, some fruitiness (citrus, mango, and passionfruit almost). Oh my god, it smells so good that I don’t even need to taste it (who am I kidding?). Holy cow, that flavor is amazing as well... it sure doesn’t get much better than this in an IPA for me (I only wish I had a sample of my favorite IPA by Southern Tier to compare this beast to). Anyway, a sip... lotsa flavors worked in there. Heavy sweetish hoppiness- starts with an island fruit flavor, followed by bitterness of grapefruits, followed by a nice pine... aftertaste intertwines the grapefruit and pine. This is near perfect, in my opinion.

Very good. Heavy on the hops. A must buy for hop heads. Very good job. Will try again and again.

In my opinion, this is a more hop-heavy brew than Stone Ruination IPA. It lacks some of the balance of the latter, but makes up for it with a monstrous bouquet of flowers and grapefruit. In the mouth, the grapefruit is so dominant, that I may just stop drinking grapefruit for breakfast and become an AM Ale drinker. Impressive if overstated. But then again, a triple IPA is not about subtlety. Too good (not)to share.

The ultimate floral IPA. Balanced with spice and citrus notes. Clean and complex. Inviting pour with an amber hue and fluffy head. I first picked it up because my son loved the bottle--so glad he did! An interesting beer to contrast against Dogfish Head 90.

A great drinkable big 7.5% IPA without the strip the enamel off your teeth bitterness so prevalent with most big IPA’s. great balance. Should do well.

Another wondefully hoppy aroma from these guys with a slight bit of caramel it seems. Flavor has a strong hop character, a bitter finish with a little noticeable alcohl, but quite good all around.