Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA

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

Bottle. Great copper-orange color...very clear. Two finger head with nice lacing that leaves the thinnist of head after 5 minutes. Balanced nose (malt, light hops), although surprising not strong for 9% alcohol. Got nailed with hops right from the first sip...then quickly moved to caramel malts mixed with toffee. The hop layer on mine was persistant throughout the entire taste (and subsequent tastes)...which I just love. Many review notes low hop flavor, but this one has it. Really enjoyed this beer.

Bottle: Courtesy of 11026 I believe. The aroma is very weak for a IIPA. There’s just some faint caramel and virtually no hops. It pours a transparent reddish-orange with a small withe head that leaves decent lacing. The flavor is almost all malt with lots of caramel and toffee up front. There are some very minimal hops in the finish. It sort of has an badly aged barley wine character to it. Certainly not what I expect in a IIPA.

This corked and caged bottled brew was actually my 2700th rating. It came from a bottle shop for $11.59 and poured a very large sized head of foamy fine to medium sized tan colored bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a slightly hazy softly carbonated orange brown colored body and a thick foamy lacing. The strong hop aroma was hoppy and contained caramel malt notes. The mouth feel was tingly at the start and strongly tingly at the finish with a mild hop bite. The flavor contained notes of malt hops and mild caramel. A decent one that I would consider buying again.

I don’t know why yeast sediment would raise a rank. I think bottle conditioning is generally BS. Plus the autolysis from bottle conditioning will do nothing for this style. Anyways, I’ve seen this beer for around $11 at various places and wondered why it was so expensive, but I refuse to pay that much for a beer unless it is some extremely hard to find beer made by some Belgian monks (who are allowed to bottle condition). Then I saw it for sale for $7.99 and figured why not. The beer pours reddish tan with a huge head with multisized bubbles, fades slowly. The aroma is surprisingly lacking. Just a touch of citrus and spice, but not as strong as I’d hope. The flavor is pretty smooth, bitter but not overwhelming. There’s some hop flavor but overall I find the beer boring, boring, boring. The aftertaste is slightly sour and sticks with you a while. Even at $8 its a rip-off.

Very highly sedimented pour. Very deep rusty amber and opaque with a firm head. Puckeringly tart at first ... settles into a normally hoppy brew. Slightly warm from the alcohol. OK, but not as good as I’d hoped.

Corked and caged bottle. 2006 bottle conditioned. Medium sized off-white head that was mostly lasting, hazy, virtually no lacing, visible carbonation, and an orange brown hue. Nose was caramel, hoppy, citrus, grapefruit, and some spicyness. Flavor was a tad too hoppy for my palate. Caramel, citrus and very hoppy tasting. Hoppy mouthfeel. Medium body.

If there is a yeast sediment, then my rank automatically rises. Hops, hops and more hops. Not my favorite I2PA but ranks up there. Aroma is magnificent.

I have to say, loving hops more than anything, this brew completely let me down. It tries to call irtself a double IPA, when it clearly lacks the complexity and the hop pressence to be such. Considerably less bitter than I had hoped for. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great brew, but why buy it when there are so many better regular IPA’s that don’t cost $12 per bottle. For some reason mine had a sticker over the 9.6% alcohol that said 9%.