Foothills Seeing Double IPA

Brewed by Foothills Brewing
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA

Blind tasting at Papsoes place, another great session, thanks Henrik! Beer #31: Pours slight cloudy amber/orange with a fully diminished white head. Peach, pinewood and mild grapefruit aroma. Flavour is sweet caramel malt with a touch of hops with a light liqourice note. Ends dry and fruity hoppy.

On tap @ Barleys, Asheville. Pours a slightly cloudy orange with dense, lingering white head. Lovely lacing down the side of the glass. Crazy amounts of hop aroma, ranging from grassy to leafy to citric to medicinal. On the palate the beer is so citrusy as to seem to be mixed with a navel orange. And then of course there’s the sticky, resiny, long bitter finish that tingles on the tongue for minutes after. If you can’t tell, I enjoyed this one immensely.

On Tap at Watts Grocery. Orange pour with light orange head. Very nice appearance. Orange-y citrus and slight bitterness. Hops are relatively mild for a double IPA. Very solid overall, if a little different than expected. Looking forward to trying again.

Growler courtesy of Degarth. Thanks for bringing this back from your trip. Pours hazy yet clearing orange-ish copper with tan head and lasting cobweb lacing. The aroma is light with sweet grapefruit hops, sweet orange juice and a hint of malt sweetness. The taste is a bit timid for an IIPA with some grapefruit and orange hop flavor (most likely due to a load of late addition hops) and mild citrus hop bitterness. Pretty nice. With further investigation it seems the late addition hopping was quite prolific and poneying up the dominant flavor component. I also get a background of sweet malts. It ends with bitter hops growing to near tepid levels compared to the sweeter citrus hop flavor. Great mouth feel on this beer.

Growler from Jimbowood. I’ve had a few weeks and just now getting around to it. Held up pretty well, big hiss upon opening, still highly carbonated. Dark copper, huge off white head, great lacing. Aroma is full of ornage zest, pine and pineapple, faint malt backbone. Malt comes through in flavor, very big sweet resinous character, tons of caramel/toffee. Juicy citrus through the middle and big spicy pine bitterness in the finish. Oily smooth mouthfeel. For 9.5% I get absolutely no alcohol, but am starting to feel it. Will agree with Naven, nothing mind-blowing about this, almost sessionable.

Courtesy of Styles

Growler: The aroma is very fruity with notes of orange, pineapple, caramel, and faint pine. It pours a dark amber with a touch of haze and a small off-white head that quickly fades to a ring around the edges of the glass. The flavor starts with a moderate dose of caramel with some hints of oranges. It finishes moderately bitter with notes of pine and some grapefruit. The caramel seems to build into the finish as well. Moderate piny aftertaste lingers for a while. Medium-full bodied with mild carbonation and a slight syrupy mouth feel.

Growler courtesy of Degarth. Awesome, thanks Joe!

Pour is cloudy as hell, almost looks like a Hefe...body is amber/rusty in color, very nice looking...incredible lacing...head is about 2 fingers thick, tightly packed full of bubbles...average retention...damn, this lacing is nice...nose of caramel, floral hops, some soapiness...aroma is muted, which is disappointing...maybe I was just expecting a more in your face citrus hop bomb, this one is more floral and subtle...doesn’t smell like many Double IPA’s out there right now...flavor is very similar, a lot of caramel/toffee malts...better sense of the hops here, big floral/perfume kick...no pine or bitterness expected from other types of hops...full bodied, very round and filling...oily, slick mouthfeel...finish is very long, floral hops, then a seemingly endless supply of caramel/toffee malts.

From a growler. Copper in color with a thin wispy head. Aroma of candy sugars and spruce trees. More of a balanced DIPA. Sweet caramel malts and some piney and citrus hops. Slick syrupy feeling. Very drinkable. Another fine beer from Foothills.