Highland Imperial Gaelic

Formerly brewed at Highland Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Asheville, North Carolina USA

Big thanks to Ross for this one. Pours turbid amber/deep copper with 1-finger khaki head and great lacing. Smells very hoppy in a wet sticky sense, with bready caramel malt, some fruit, and some spicy peppery hints. Tastes bready caramel malty, with big hops, and solid spicy peppery notes, plus some mango, tangerine, and perfumy hints. Very complex. This one tastes and smells very similar to the Impy Kashmir, but this one has more complexity and I just found it to be a tad better, although I consider both to be outstanding.

25 oz bottle, via NachlamSie. Pours a clear dark orange to amber body under a small tight bubbled beige head. Fairly heavy lacing remained. The nose is very sweet, yet there’s still a good amount of resiny hops. Some candy sugar, toffee, caramel, slight alcohol, dates, and light spices. The flavor is nicely balanced, a turbandino sugar and sweet maltiness leads off, then the resiny hops keep it from becoming too sweet, Finishes with a lingering bitterness and some tobacco notes. Mouthfeel is full bodied and really soft for such a big beer. Perfect soft carbonation, sweet, but no where near cloying or sticky. I really liked this, I thought it might be too much, but it’s really pretty mellow. The hops still tasted pretty fresh, would not have guessed that this was an 05 beer.

An imperial version of a quite mild but well balanced beer should, under most circumstances, remain uninteresting or turn out poorly, in my experiences with a useless doubling of ingredients of an already enjoyable beer. The base version of this beer, however, is fantastic, certainly one of the better recipes produced by one of North Carolina’s best breweries, the resulting "Imperial" version commands recognition. The pour is a lightly hazy dark amber/red with orange glints at the edges. A light tan head produces heavy lacing that falls down into the liquid below all too quick. Earthy and pine-resin hops are foremost in escaping the glass, but the lovely malt profile is what’s most noticeable and admirable. Notes of caramel, toasted grains, residual sugars, mild, spice, vanilla and basement must. The flavor is of very rich and not overly sweet caramel, followed by pleasant mild hoppy bitterness and a clean foray into the original taste structure of the regular Gaelic ale. Earthiness is hearty and welcoming. Sweetness is medium, bitterness low to mild, no real astrincency or acidity. The finish is very well balanced, lightly bitter but mostly semi-sweet, caramel malt lingering. The mouthfeel is creamy, smooth and medium-full bodied, warming with weighty alcohol.

22 oz. bottle, shared by a fellow Ratebeerian at O’Briens (sorry, I don’t remember exactly who it was...). Pours a clear garnet color with a small beige head. Nice hoppy aroma, floral and light citrus notes, rich malts, toasty and somewhat fruity. Wow, interesting. Spicy, toasty malts, citrus hoppy, but somewhat overpowered by alcohol, grapefruit, astringent finish. Medium body, gentle carbonation, smooth and yummy.

Best beer of a mighty large sampling spread of IPA’s (mostly). Reddish caramel brown, slight hazy with a dense creamy light tan head. Big full malty nose. Caramel, toast, some chocolate, alcohol. Balanced. Substantial body, small alcohol warming, low carbonation. Big sweet caramel, alcohol balances it nicely. Some toast, tannic, surprisingly dry woody finish. Not bad at all!

Date: 09/23/2006
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, Asheville

opaque orange, thin creamy beige head, nice lace, big earthy hop aroma, creamy body, big hop flavor well balanced with some nice sweet carmel malt,
-------- /> Date: 10/01/2006
Mode: bottle

hazy dark red, the beige head is easily roused to produce lots of drippy lace, a touch of malt sweetness to go with the earthy hop aroma, a bit of alcohol initially coming through on the flavor along with the carmel sweetness, the rich carmel malt flavor only has a touch of the sweetness that normally occurs such rich carmel malt, lots of the earthy hop flavor but well balanced, a good strong ale with lots of hops balancing the rich carmel malt
-------- /> Date: 01/26/2007
Source: tasting

lots more of the caramel sweetness foming through and taking over, still enough earthy bitterness to provide some balance but it it becoming a sweet caramel story now

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 8/10; Overall: 15/20
Rating: 3.7/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Pours a hazy amber brown color with a tan head. Aroma is caramel, some roasted malts, and aged bitter hops. Flavor is roasted malts, biscuity, smoky, and some aged citrus hops

Ok, I’ve had a bottle of this (which NachlamSie was so kind to pick up for me) sitting around for a while now. After some of the initial reactions to it, I decided to wait a while and let it meld. Gotta say, good call on my part. It pours a bold red-orange with tight, light beige head and good lacing. The aroma is rich, fruity malt, prune, caramel, maybe some blackberries; there are also scents of pine and orange from the hops, and an occasional stray waft of cocoa and honey. The flavor is resinous pine up front, and leaves sticky hoppiness everywhere. These hops blend very harmoniously with a malt backbone that reminds me of raisinbread and granola bars. The finish is perky bitterness and only slight alcohol warmth. All the flavors come together very gracefully, I must say. The mouthfeel is full, with enough carbonation to spread things out. I loved this. To those of you who drank this too young, you missed out.