Highland Imperial Kashmir India Pale Ale

Formerly brewed at Highland Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Asheville, North Carolina USA

The color was a medium brown/orange. The head was creamy, foamy, and off-white. THe aroma was very hoppy, some spice, citris, and pine. The flavor was strong hops, alcohol, pine, a slight bitterness, and citrisy apricot. The palate was lively. The finish was warm and citrisy.

Pours a burnished amber with a medium creamy light tan head. The aroma is sharp hops, pine, citrus, resiny, some alcohol . The flavor is strong hops, alcohol, resiny, citrus, good malt backbone. Dry warm palate and waxy mouthfeel.

Very lucky to have a friend snag several extremely limited edition releases of this year’s batch. The inconsistency of hops available and grown by the Highland Brewing Company is likely for the variety of rating scores... it varies from year to year, and a different "version" emits every year. Fortunately, this year, the batch was quite good. The pour is a deep orange-nut, with a very nice eggshell froth that diminishes to a soapy cap. Pineapple and pine are predominate in the nose. Tropical citrus and caramel/toffee are quite smooth, backed with a spiced hop... just a touch of alcohol peppers lightly on the end of the pull. This is extremely well-integrated, but my only concern is that the body is a little lighter than the traditional Impy IPA. Very, very smooth, however, with medium carbonation levels. My impression is that the beginning and ending of the pull are done nicely, just sagging slightly in the middle.

Thanks to limesmut for the bottle. Hazy orange with a medium head. Aroma of earthy caramel malt and tropical fruit hops. Flavor was earthy with pine and tropical fruits that was very balanced with the sweetness of the caramel malts. Some spice in there also.
Nicely spicy and bitter finish. Alcohol is well hidden. A bit too ’balanced’ for my taste.

Word to Andrew for bringing this one over. Subtle hop aromas of grapefruit and bubblegum. Thick copper color looks good. Full bodied with a slight metallic hoppy flavor. Pine dominates the taste and the finish is syrupy.

The aroma was piney and resinous like fresh hop cones. Caramel lurked somewhere behind, but it would have been difficult to prove if testifying in court. The aroma was grassy, citrus, piney and spicy. Every hop aromatic under the sun. The beer poured with a slight haze into the glass and had a low off-white head which lingered at the surface of the amber beer long enough to last the glass. The flavor was nicely bittered and balanced with strong caramel and malty characteristics to offset a stong and powerful hop bittering and flavor. The hop flavor was not nearly as agressive as the aroma promised. The flavor was piney, citrusy, grassy and a bit spicy. The flavor had quite a bit of fresh hop character. The finish was dry with lasting impressions of caramel and bittering hand in hand into the aftertaste. The body was medium-full and despite a somewhat low level of carbonation the beer was nice and creamy on the palate. An interesting and complex Imperial IPA. Cheers to the boyz at Highland. 22 ounce bottle. $9.99 at Sam’s in Durham.

Dark amber in color. Hoppy aroma with citrus notes. A little watery for an imp IPA. An ok beer not great.

Bottle... Murky amber ale with a mid-sized, fizzy, white head. Great, small, tight retention. The nose offers notes of ethanol, earthy hops and fuzzy fruit. The flavor is all caramel malt, alcohol and violently bitter hops. Full-bodied and astringent with fizzy carbonation. Dry, bitter finish. Cheers to mgumby10 for sharing the bottle!