boboski (1095), USA Mar 28, 2007 Updated: Apr 3, 2007 I <i>adore</i> the name of this beer. Deep amber pour, translucent, with sunburst orange hues. Off white head is creamy and slow to recede. Aroma bursts forth from the glass with notes of booming grapefruit. More miniscule notes of toasty malt, pine needles, sun ripened oranges, slight perfumy remnants of esters and a distinct saltiness round out a marvelous and captivating nose. Magnificent and forceful aroma. I would like to note that I had to make a conscious effort to stop sniffing and start drinking, the aroma is that much fun. Blasts of hops with profound bitterness and focus charge forward in the flavor. Delicious! Malt is plentiful and nicely evenly toasted. Doughy and sugary notes blend well with the profuse bitterness. Citrus is muffled by the intensity. Onion powder spice from the Summit hops works well in this recipe. As the glass warms, cinnamon and vanilla spicing glimmers through, providing thought provoking and even more unexpected complexity. Oddly, a slow soft fade-out of flavor and hop bitterness arrives before the finish, this just gets better! Now it seems balanced, for a brief moment, near the end of each sip. This is a mind-bending, brutal, barbaric IPA. Finishes very dry, lightly acidic, very oily and rich with loads of lingering bitterness and creamy rye notes(interesting). The finale is a stinging hop bite that would tear through the most torturous Thai dishes with ease. Palate is very lively and well carbonated, moderately smooth, medium-full to full bodied. This beer is awesome. I have been totally caught off guard, much to my delight.
AgentSteve (929), SF Bay Area, California, USA May 15, 2008 Updated: May 21, 2008Steve from Valley Brewing had a keg of this @ his brewery and tapped it for a few of us. Even though this was over a year old, everything was still firing on all cylinders! Wonderful hop aroma with pineapple and citrus in the nose and flavor, which also showcased a smooth caramel malt backbone. The mouthfeel was a bit viscous and the finish was clean. Beautiful. Storm (2685), Amager, Denmark Aug 1, 2007 Bottle. Cloudy amber colour with a little white head. Lovely aroma of citrus, melon and peach. Also fantastic flavour of hopas such as melon citrus and bitter finish, very nice tasty and great. Ungstrup (11713), Frederiksberg, Denmark Jun 5, 2007 Bottled. An unclear amber beer with a thick beige head. The aroma is sweet and very hoppy giving it notes of grass and grapefruit. The flavor is sweet with notes of caramel and lots of hops giving it strong notes of grapefruit. madsberg (4377), Bangalore, India Jun 2, 2007 Bottled. Orange coloured. Unclear. Dense light brown head. Pines, sweetness, herbs, flowers, spice and light caramel in the aroma. Nice. Flavour is awesome and quite balanced. Pines, flowers, herbs and spice. Loads of fruity and caramelnotes. Full bodied. Totally dry. Has a very heavy piney bitterness in the end, though its countered by a subtle sweetness making this an extraordinary experience and a worhty DIPA no. 50 in my book. SoLan (1188), Orlando, Florida, USA Apr 6, 2007 Courtesy aspidites and stoutlover72. Hazy, glowing amber/orange and 2cm of frothy, off white foam. Nose of floral resin, tangerine, melon, small hit of cannibus, sugary sweetness. Similar flavor, intense hops, lightly spicy. Resinous without being syrupy. Medium/full body, balanced carbonation. Very drinkable, dangerously so. Excellent IIPA.
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