Ithaca Excelsior! Alphalpha

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

Shared by my friend jimwight. Thanks James!! Pours a yellow/orange color with a nice head. Aroma hits with a big dose of honeycomb and a good mix of malt, yeast and hops. Flavor has the honey covered and a nice balance of malt and spicy hops. Yeah, another great Ithaca beer.

Aroma is of floral hops and sweeter malt. Flavor similar, with very slight grainy sweet malt and some more citrusy fruits.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy light orange with a thick, foamy white head that leaves nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of hop oils, citrus hops, grassy hops and some crackery malt. Very resiny. Flavor is equally resiny, with more citrus and crackery malt. Light bitterness in the finish. There is a light sweetness, I guess from the honey. It is very subtle but really complements the beer nicely. I was expecting more honey, but was pleasantly surprised that it was a mild presence. Definitely not too sweet as others have suggested (in fact it is more on the bitter side). Nice IIPA, don’t let the "honey" in the title fool you. 8/4/8/4/16 (4.0/5)

Cloudy banana yellow, sloshy head, like a heady hefe. Sweet summery hop aroma, flowery with orange, lemon, honey and grass. Chocolate and cocoa bean malt with toasted almonds; complex aroma. Bitter hop flavor with nutty roasted malt backbone. Perfume, bubblegum, Christmas tree, nutmeg, oak and dark grape. Smooth and ashy both on the palate, big and thick. Slightly less than the sum of its parts: still, a resinous, roasted beer with tons of character that becomes similar to a barleywine when it warms up.

750 ml bottle. Pours a cloudy golden orange with a large, fluffy off-white head that lasted through two-thirds of the glass and leaves an incredibly thick coating of foam on the glass. There are quite a few bits are dark orange "pieces" that settle to the bottom of the glass and one or two floating in the foam that leave dark coppery streaks. Very pleasant aroma of mild honey, pine and grass. The flavor is again mild honey with bitter pine and perhaps just a bit of orange along with some light grassiness. A tad dry at the finish. Enjoyable.

750ml at pbsmooth’s tasting. Fresh piney hop aroma. Golden honey like pour. Taste is piney hops that are somewhat subdued by the honey. Floral qualities present also. Pretty good

750 - well fellow NY metro guys - all I can say is that you should have tried this beer from the bottle, because what I’m drinking right now is pretty damn good - first of all, it looks amazing - turbid gold, with a huge, thick frothy head - we’re talking an Orval-like head here - spicy, floral hops in the nose, soft honey sweetness, wildflowers, grass, hay - full, yet soft carbonation - relatively sweet at first, with a lot of tropical fruit character (mango, pineapple) - the honey becomes pretty apparent through the middle, but the bitterness comes on strong after that, adding a citric character - the beer dries out in the end, leaving behind spicy hop bitterness and peppery alcohol - it could use a bit more body, but this is pretty damn good.

Tap at Barcade. Hazy golden-orange beer. The aroma is lightly hoppy. Sort of a light sweet orange and a bit of piny hoppiness as well. The flavour is lightly hoppy with a bit of sweet honey and some fairly unusual orangey cascadey type hops... there’s a bit of vegetal/herbal character in addition to the orange citrus that is a bit more typical. It’s a bit thin. Meh.