Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Longmont, Colorado USA

The Twin Sisters, pours initially cloudy light yellow settling into a medium/dark amber body. Large off white mostly lasting head with fair lacing, the sisters contained an inviting appearance. The nose detected a heavy presence of flowery hops with hints of malts and alcohol. It’s important to note the large amounts of yeast settling at the bottom of the glass. Initially moderately sweet taste contained hints of pineapple followed by a lighter bitter taste with a strong presence of alcohol. This is very similar in taste to a barley wine. Medium and oily in body, the Twin Sisters had a soft presence of carbonation. This is a complete beer. Ignace would greatly enjoy this selection and it could easily compete with the best of the best from Belgium. Reviewed on December 22nd, 2006 with Hops.

Pours a cloudy amber color with an off-white head. Aroma is of citrus, caramel, and some sweet malts. Flavor starts off with the citrus hops and finishes with the caramel and sweet malts. Has a decent bitter finish but not as much as a double IPA usually has. Decent but not my favorite.

Bottle poured a clear copper/orange color with a small off white head. The aroma was lacking the hops but had a big malt presants with sweet caramel. Taste was exeptionally smooth for being so big. Not quite the hop profile of a double IPA, but had all the malt in the world. I would really like to try this one on tap some day.

It had a nice orange color with a froathy white head. Taste was of grapefruit all the way. The alcohol was well hidden in the beer. As it warmed I could detect some breadyness in it. Nice beer

Amber bodied and somewhat hazy, this DIPA sports a huge fizzy head. Thick lacing. The aroma has a good caramel base, but the hops have a slight medicinal quality to them - pine, grapefruit, eucalyptus, and small flowers. The bitterness is cleaner and carries the "classic" PNW flavor, but not as strong as I would expect in the style. Nice bitter finish, but not too strong and a bit too brief. Okay enough.

<font size=-4><a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? Fine Wine and Spirits (formerly Armanetti’s), Mundelein, IL<font size=-1>

Bottle during my NC brew tour. Pours and uber cloudy light orange with a decent white head. The aroma is giant of zesty citrus with a bit of toffee. The flavor has a very interesting hop quality about it, it’s almost meaty. A bit of earth, cough drops, honey, a bit of hickory are all noticed in the flavor. This is certainly different than the average IIPA. I found it a bit difficult to finish the entire bottle, though the first glass was tasty enough. I was expecting a bit more out of this one, really.

Apricot and grapefruit flavors predominate. Big bitterness on the finish and rather quick as well. A little one dimensional. Little sweetness and sugary mouth coating.

750 purchased at Sam’s, Durham. I hadn’t heard good things about this one and my initial impressions were negative. Nice amber body and frothy head, but an imbalanced flavor dominated by bad bitterness and overly aggressive malts. However, the character changed considerably as the beer warmed and there was much improvement - lovely citrus hops emerged to make this a solid brew.