Drakes Denogginizer

Brewed by Drakes Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
San Leandro, California USA

GABF 2007. Nice sprucey hops in the beginning with crackery malts evident as a counterpoint. Creamy head in the glass over a clear beer. On further sipping, the hops occasionally get fruity (grapefruit), but always remain crisply bitter, almost immediately once the beer touches the mouth. Solid.

GABF 2007. A clear golden beer with a thin orangey head. THe arom ais very grassy and grapefruity. The flavor is sweet malty with notes of alcohol and grapefruit, leading to a dry and very bitter finish.

Can at ZBF08. Powerful hop aroma, also very malty... Bonbon and caramel. Clear chestnut colour. Very small tan head. Very hoppy flavour, slightly biting hoppiness. Sharp grass finish. Very sweet but balanced well by the hops.

Can [Thanks to Phil_L] @ <a href=http://ratebeer.com/events-detail.asp?eventID target=_new> Zythos Bier Festival 2008, Sint Niklaas, Belgium. Unclear medium amber orange color with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly diminishing, off-white head. Aroma is moderate malty, caramel, moderate to heavy hoppy, pine, grape - orange. Flavor is moderate sweet and moderate to light heavy bitter with a long to average duration. Body is medium to full, texture is oily - syrupy, carbonation is soft to flat, finish feel is light to moderate alcoholic. (020308)

Can at ZBF 2008 - thanks to ???. Clear dark amber - light yellow head. Lots of bread, high malty, high hoppy, sweetness, spicy, honey, flowery, grassy, piney, peppery. Alcoholic finish. OK - but a bit unbalanced !!

Huge, dense & fine yellow head over clear red-chestnut beer. Fine lace. Toiletsoap, C-hops, lytchee, ripe mango and pineresin. Superb inviting nose that makes one want to bite in the glass... Very bitter, orange- or grapefruitrind-like, also vegetable bitter, with a lot of C-hop flavour, near overpowering the not unimportant amount of malts, including caramel malt. Slick, slightly sticky-oily, resinous, very well-bodied, near chewy. A hard, somewhat unidimensional IIPA, but all in all a very good Westcoaster. Thank you very much, Rodger D.!

A Mes rate: Unlabelled can during Zythos thanks to Phil_L.
Stunningly good looking amber with a good brown / white head. Huge resinous alcoholic hops carried expertly well by some barley and really good malt. Petrol and diesel character in the mouth let it down a little. The hops are lovely but I can’t help but feel that they are being held back. Lovely bitterness on the finish but it is washed away to soon by some stinging alcohol. Great beer but just a little over the top.

Draught, City Beer, San Francisco, 24th Feb 2008. Great amber colour with lots of lacing. Awesome aroma of peach, grapefruit and mango plus hops. The flavour is a mix of the same notes as the aroma with a full malty body. Bit cloying in the mouth, but overall, I found this a nice strong beer. More of a barley wine than a double IPA in some regards though.