Ithaca Excelsior! Alphalpha

Brewed by Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Ithaca, New York USA

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.

750ml bottle. A very interesting beer. Pours deep brown with a faint reddish tint, big beige head with light lacing. Sweet nose of honey, faint hops and some sweet caramel and toffee. The flavor brings out the honey and finishes with a bitter sweet bite.

( 750ml thanks to zdk9) Pours a cloudy orange with huge oily head. Nose is more chlorine (seems very common with Ithaca brews for me) honey, grapefruit. Taste is bitter hops, orange blossom honey, with a creamy body and nice balance overall that lends towards bitter more than sweet. If this beer didn’t smell like chlorine it would be nearly perfect. Very good, but disappointed by the nose despite my 9 rating. It was so good on so many levels, but bittersweet.

Pours a dark copper color with golden orange hues and a massive frothy, soapy head. Excellent retention with huge chunks of soapy lacing. Beautiful citrus west coast style hop aroma with lots of grapefruit, orange peel and pine notes. I’m also picking up some guava and other tropical fruit notes along with some sweet honey. Creamy medium body with a an amazing sweet honey/molasses and caramel malt presence that balance out the floral citrus hops. This beer is ridiculously smooth with an almost undetectable ABV. Very smooth and refreshing, one of the most quaffable beers I’ve had to date. I have to stop myself from pounding the whole glass. Extremely well balanced with nice citrus hop bitterness, caramel malt, smooth swet honey and guava/tropical fruit notes. Pine, grapefruit, lemon zest, orange peel flavors with a slightly dry finish. This is an excellent beer that I wish I could buy by the case.

bottle thanks to zdk9 on ba. murky gold with a ring of white head. oranges, honey,light hops and pineapples. citrusy hops, honey and oranges for the flavor. nice thickness and a great citrusy aftertaste.