Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Extra! Ale

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Petaluma, California USA

A Lil’ Sumpin Sumpin is going to be a tough act to follows, Lagunitas. Best of luck, though! Appearance: Pours out a faintly hazed, amber-hued body with a medium-small, frothy, off-white head. Smell: Heady mixture of pale, lightly toasty, vaguely sweetish maltiness and aromatic hop notes of astringent pine resin, sugar-coated grapefruit rinds, and a pervasive, underlying earthiness. Taste: Sweet-tasting pale malts with a light touch of toasted grains. Small, buried hints of malted wheat in the taste, though this could just as easily be the product of a diseased, alcohol-ravaged mind, so who knows for certain. Then, in come the hearty dose of hops with strong, sharp floral, citrusy, earthy, pine-based tastes and a moderate amount of tongue-scalding bitterness. Toasty touches persist in the latter half, but, mainly this is the realm of the bitter hops (at least for me). I would say this finishes bittersweet, but it’s more like 75% bitter and 25% sweet. So, it finishes bittermoresweetless. Yes, that sounds about right. Mouthfeel: Medium-plus body. Medium carbonation. A bit oily and even sticky in the mouthfeel. Drinkability: Well, it’s a run-of-the-mill Double IPA for me, having left behind the grace and ease of it’s younger cousin, going back to bitter and basic and not too terribly far removed from their other basic, bitter brews.

bottle. pours orange, white head. aroma of grassy hops, citrus fruits, and pine, yeasty nose flavor, citrus hops, some char malty caramel notes, mild bitterness and spices. Sweet sugary notes, grapefruit, finishes with bitter hops and the signature Lagunitas mouthfeel that can get a little tiring at times.

Pours from 22 oz bomber a golden orange hue topped by a foamy, white colored head that shows good retention and leaves rings of lace behind. The aroma balances between orange, grapefruit, and piny hops and some sweet caramel and toffee malt. The flavour follows with more of the grapefruit and pine bitterness up front and then balanced nicely by some sweet citrus and the toffee malt backbone. Full bodied with an extremely creamy mouth-feel with decent carbonation that leads to a bitter sweet finish. Really good IIPA, wish I had more.

Pours an orange amber with fluffy white head. Fruit, piney fresh hops, and caramel in the aroma. The flavor is much more bogged down with sweetness, caramel, also grapefruit, earthy malt, and metallic hops. Very marginal for an IIPA.

22 oz. Burnt orange with a lasting quarter-inch of creamy foam. Big nose of evergreen resin jumps right out of the bottle, joined later by some caramel, pineapple and orange. Tastes of resin, caramel, and peppery orange zest. A light wood note in the finish. Near-medium body is tingly and resin-dried, and almost too fizzy.

Bottle:   Vibrant golden, large rocky white head, nice lacing, little to no carbonation.   Sweet citrusy hop aroma.   Smells delicious.   Sweet tropical fruit and candied citrus peel on the tongue.   Hoppy, but the sweetness really balances out the bitterness.   Damn tasty.   Not as malty as I would like, but not as hoppy either.   Just plain ole juicy tropical fruit and candied citrus peel.   Moderate body and mouthfeel.   Citrus peel becomes more astringent on the backside.   Not very hot or alcoholic for an 8.74% beer.   Not as big as other IIPAs, but very smooth, sweet, and juicy.   Yeah, juicy is one word I would certainly use to describe this.   Worth it for sure!

Citrus aroma of some lemon and orange peel. Flavor is somewhat bitter, more of the grapefruit and malts. The alcohol is actually not too strong considering how high the content was.

Pours a very luminous golden color that might be close a light amber. Head is creamy white and moderately thick, and leaves a luxurious lace. Nose is my favorite aspect of this beer. It has a glorious candied citrus that reminds me of See’s candies as a child, with some apricot, grapefruit, and lemon to orange. Palate has plenty of tartness and pine from the hops, with the malt that is there having some of that candied character come through. Alcohol is somewhat subdued but you can tell it’s a DIPA.