Ithaca Excelsior! IPAbbey

Formerly brewed at Ithaca Beer Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Ithaca, New York USA

750 ml bottle courtesy of beastiefan2k via theisti; enjoyed at csbosox’s tasting on 3/7/08. Pours a light, muddy, spiced tea brown with a thin, white skin at the surface. On the nose are bready malt and floral, piny and spicy hops. Medium-bodied and quite slick with a hoppy, bitter finish. The flavor follows the nose; a nicely balanced beer. This was my favorite of the evening, up to that point in the festivities. Thanks for sharing this one with us, Eugene!

750 ml bottle shared by Tim. Murky amber with a dirty white head. Wonderful Juicy Fruit hop aromas with some sugars apparent as well. Tastes more IPA than abbey. Fruity hops flavor with as extra sweetness. Maybe a bit earthy as well. Easy to drink with a bitter dryness. Very tasty.

750 ml bottle from Beastiefan2k, enjoyed at the csbosox tasting on 3/7/08. Bottle #135, released April 2007. Pour is hazy golden orange - yellow. Aroma of floral hops, some earthiness behind. The flowery bouquet is really soft, and very nice. Taste is big on the floral hops initially, though falls apart a bit in the middle. Finish is actually really thin - makes it drinkable, but takes away a lot of the initial complexity. Thanks for giving me this one Eugene.

Bottle #1871. Pours deep honey with thin head. Big hops smell. Lots of sediment particles. Taste like a honey DIPA. I don’t get any of the Tripel at all. A tasty, unique beer that is not bad.

sampled at the San Diego Strong Ale Festival Nov 2008, an event shared with what seemed liked hundreds of ratebeerians and enjoyed mostly through a straw, since my face was a bloody mess of scabs and stitches. this came from the RB table full of bottles. Goldtwins brought this little treat. the aroma was belgian malt and yeast in the nose, the body ha d a great aged hoped flavor with a nice bitter finish. some alcohol present in the finish too.

Thin frothy white head of rather large bubbles. Sweet aroma with lots of candy sugar, toffee, caramel malts and some spicy hops notes. Color is a slightly hazy dark mahagony brown. Lots of alcohol up front along with lots more caramel, a bit of roastyness, and a rather thick malty body. This is not a tripel in my eyes. More like an american strong ale and very reminiscent of Stone arrogant bastard. Heat and hops late swallow with a lingering dry bitterness. This is an ok brew but does not really resemble anything from belgium. Could use a change of yeast for starters.

25 oz bottle, via lukin013. Pours a slightly hazy orangish copper body under a nice frothy one finger beige head that left lots of lacing. First impression of the nose was that this is no ordinary Tripel. Lots of citrusy hops on the nose with a good amount of fruity maltiness and some yeast influence. The flavor is pretty far from a Tripel as well, with alot of sweet caramel and date maltiness below the clean crisp hoppiness. There’s some noticable yeastiness lingering in the background, but that’s about it for any parallels to a Belgian Tripel. A slightly alcoholic finish really warms the throat as it goes down. Not overly hot with alcohol, just right. Fairly thick in texture with a slight clinginess on the finish and moderate soft carbonation. Overall, an interesting beer for sure. It is it’s own animal.

rather disappointed with this beer. i didnt get any of the real belgian yeast quality. what i got was a sticky sweet DIPA with not nearly enough hoppy flavor. so not only was the trappist yeast flavor missing, but so were the hops. the malt seemed underattentuated (especially for a belgian yeast) and it overwhelmed everything else.