Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-Down Ale

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Petaluma, California USA

dark red beer with medium head..sweet aroma with hints of caramel, fruit, and piney/floral hops...chewy malts are detected first, followed by harsh piney, bitter hops..oddly refreshing, and quite tasty..not to be followed by another shut-down

Bottle. Pours dark amber with a medium sized head. Aroma is nice citrusy-soapy indicative of generous dry hopping. Flavor is pleasant red fruity and caramel, with a bit of hop bitterness in the finish. Discernable alcohol heat in the aftertaste, a bit too sharp for my taste. All in all a well made brew, but little more. Sort of like if Rogue’s American Amber married Lagunitas’ strong ales.

Pours a nice ruby red with white head good lacing. Only a light aroma. Hides the alcohol well nice and hoppy nicely balanced with malt. Medium body with a bit of a spicy hop finish.

Slightly hazy reddish amber, diminishing off-white head leaves decent lacing. Potpourri of sweet hop aromas including citrus, pine, agave syrup, flowers, toasted malt. Like a hophead’s candy store, really. Flavors congruent to nose. Pungent bitter finish. Strong brew.

Poured from bottle auburn brown with a medium-sized off-white head. Aroma is quite nice with floral and citrusy hops mixed with a bit of caramel. Flavor is sweet with caramel and has some burnt orange, pine and grapefruit notes and is rather light on the finishing bitter despite the description of it being Bitter in rememberance of their shutdown. Palate is well balanced between sweet and bitter with a nice smoothness and little to no alcohol astringeny given its ABV. Overall, great and easy drinking beer for such a Big one.

Outstanding, Tastes more like an Imperial IPA rather then a strong ale to me. Great copper color, bitter hop aroma and flavor, a little citrus, and even a little malt hiding inside.

12 oz. bottle poured into trappist glass- poured transparent darkened with time amber with shades of brown and copper, low-medium carbonation, foamy off white head formed, tried it’s best to lace, and tried to encourage me to quit smoking. Aroma of unrefined candy sugar, lemon, lime, and hops a plenty. Hits the mouth with a medium body, malt is there but has a hard sweet tang to it, middle degrades to a point, finish is sticky and lingers- notes of sweetness are easy to spot. Alcohol is not apparent at all. Not exactly to style, but I wouldn’t kick this out of my fridge even if it ate cookies in it.

Enjoyed in a pub tumbler via 12oz bottle. Pours a deep brown color with perhaps a 3/4 inch head. Nose of citrusy American hops open up in the nose. This is followed up with hops up front and a nice finishing and balancing malt sweetness on the back of the palate; closing with a nice semi-dry finish. The flavors and smooth nature of this example bely its abv. Excellent as an appertif, as well as a night cap with an interesting book.