Ithaca Excelsior! Alphalpha

A milky golden IPA with a thin white head. A pleasant mix of hops, floral and pungeant, and wild honey, clover, and grassy notes. In mouth, a very smooth imperial IPA, with lingering herbal bitterness, good citrusy hops attack, not overwhelmig, light honey notes and warming alcohol. Cask at Syracuse Real Ale Festival, Oct. 23 2009.

Medium sized tan head with good retention and lace. Lightly hazy amber copper color. Gentle floral, spicey hop nose and faint honey notes. Medium bodied with a soft carbonation, lightly oily and resiny. Non aggressive hoppy flavors, floral, spicey, with notes of caramel, grass and faint vinous notes, honey? Fairly dry finish with an ok hop bite. Props to coldbrewky for the bottle, thanks steve!

From a bottle poured amber with a gooda mount of head. Nice hoppy flavor with a lingering aftertaste.

Bottle shared by sloth at SL. Pour was amber with a decent initial head. The aroma was all hoppy with some floral notes and tea bags detectable. Flavor followed, firm malt backbone, perhaps caramel most notable, mouthfull of hops, floral most prominent, some tea bags also present here, somewhat unfortunately. However, backed by the fairly big body, this was an enjoyable brew. Fresher is better, perhaps incredible on draft?

Shared bomber. Pours a strong golden straw color, a nice amount of yeast adds an attractive haze. The light tan head is thick and frothy but diminishes leaving lavish sticky lacing on my glass. Sweet honey and hops dominate the aroma. The rich flavor is sweet at first with the hops coming on strong in the middle, and a lasting bitterness at the finish.

(BCTC, 750ml bottle) Small off-white head atop muddy amber body, some yeast. Aroma is moderately sweet, orange, some grapefruit, honey. Taste is moderately sweet, orange, some grapefruit, honey. Medium body, some resin.

Bomber, shared. Pours amber with a frothy head that lingers for a bit of time. Aroma is quite interesting, as I caught honey, grapefruit, orange, caramel, and a bit of hops. Taste is sweet up front with a lot of honey and caramel, moving into a hop bitterness, even though the sweetness lingers a bit. I got a little bit of grass (alfalfa, I know) at the end, as well. It’s a unique outing, and I enjoyed it.

Bottle 鼮). Body is a dingy amber and supports a pretty large fizzy/frothy head. Aromas are inspiring - a bit of orange blossom sweetness and citrus to them, quite a bit of grapefruit, and a little bit of sweet malt (caramel?). Flavor is interesting and unique, but has a couple of flaws (at least as far as I’m concerned). It starts off with a washed out sweetness that is honey, caramel and pears and then as it develops across the palate it just kind of freezes before finally yielding to a bitter grapefruit finish. The finish is very nice, the beginning is OK, but in the middle it just kind of hangs there and comes off as flavorless. In spite of all that, it is still a pretty darn good beer and seems to be improving a bit as it warms. It doesn’t let the malt sweetness control the show, so it is more enjoyable to me than many of its peers.