Harpoon Leviathan Imperial IPA

Brewed by Harpoon Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Boston, Massachusetts USA

7/18/2009: Harpoon Leviathan has a sugary grapefruit aroma. The beer is a clear, golden color with a frothy off-white head. This medium-bodied beer is smooth and tastes like sugared grapefruit with lots of PINE hop flavor heaped on top. There is just enough maltiness underneath to temper the bite of this beer. Overall this is another very sessionable IIPA.

Draught sample(s) at the 14th Annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana. Rating #199 for this beer.

Bottle. Hazy, copper with a thick, creamy head that fades to peaks. Sharp hop aroma with pine and lemon dominating. Heavy and sweet, with a hop bite. Very high alcohol, which is hidden well in the malt.

bottle, lean amber color with short frothy foam, aroma of sweet pineapple, flavors of bitter melon, lemon, light resin, finish is tacky, bitter

Pours orange with some amber nice 1-2" white head. Aromas of citrus:apritcot, orange and some piney grapefruit with some sweet sugary malts. Candied citrus right up front followed by a rush of bitter hop(pine) and some dark sugar, carmel malt. Pretty well balanced, I think it could be better with a few months cellaring. Enjoyable none the less

A pretty peach color with a nice sticky white head. Some spice, lots of apricot, plenty of hop citrus, banana. Aggressive palate, lots of bitter hops, lots of fruit and soap on the finish. Not the most balanced IIPA because of the excessive bitterness, but after a few sips you get to the malts and the citrus in the center of the beer.

Cloudy caramel-amber with good, creamy beige head / Perfumed nose of citrus and dry hops / Medium body with fruit not holding up to the big dose of bitter hops and finish / Flavors of dry hops with lesser notes of grapefruit and brown sugar / Not bad, just somewhat out of balance.

Nice DIPA Harpoon. Best before 9/15/09 12oz. Bottle. Pours out a clean(filtered) orange/gold. Awesome west coast aroma of lovely aggressive PNW Hops! Nice sweet juicy malt to balance the lupulin. Great mouth with lots of IBU and hop perception. Aroma is tropical,citrus peel,Melon/Cantelope/pine, nice fresh caramel malts and fresh barley,yeast.Really nice integration of flavor/aroma. Light carbonation.This is right on par with say Maharaja,Eleven but dare I say a bit better?!(Refined,Cleaner) Worth the 9.99 for a 4-pk purchased @ Norm’s inVienna,VA.As the beer warms the malts dominate(fresh and good though a little sticky)Alcohol is well integrated as well. This brewery has shown it is better than middle of the road, though before the Leviathan series I wasn’t sure.

Source:12 oz bottle from a 4 pack purchased at Chuck’s in BG.
Glass:Tripel Karmeliet tulip.
Appearance:Hazy orange pour with a half finger of white head that quickly dissipated.
Aroma:Citrus. Notes of orange and lemon zest, grapefruit hops and some residual sweetness.
Flavor:Sweet malt base, toffee and caramel both. Grapefruit finish, but not as dominant as I would like. Very clean though.
Palate:Medium body with solid carbonation.
Overall:Not what I had hoped. A little too sweet. The sweetness overwhelms the hops. Average IIPA.