Legend Imperial IPA

Brewed by Legend Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Richmond, Virginia USA

Sunburst-bright orange. Aroma is surprisingly faint given the style, but has some subtly serrated evergreen folded into a perfumed biscuity dough. Hops flavor is lightly grassy, citric and rife with delicious, perfectly-balanced malt sweetness, exhibiting toffee and mostly biscuit. Surprisingly little finishing bitterness, given the billed IBUs, but there are a lot of residual sugars here. More of a lighter barleywine to me, especially given the low amounts of hop aroma. But delicious stuff nonetheless. Courtesy of The_Beer_God - thanks Mike.

(Bottle) Pours a burnt orange body with a large rocky beige head. Aroma of florals and grapefruit. Chewy body with pine upfront and then more grapefruit and caramel in the finish. Drink close to room temperature for the best flavor.

First, this is a delicious beer. However it brings up the fuzzy line between barleywine and the imperial IPA with some brewers. To me an imperial/double IPA should be absolutely about hops, with the malt strong enough to support but not overshadow the hops. In this example, the malt takes on some of the sweetness, esteryness and body characteristic of the unfermented dextrins of a barleywine. That said, it’s still delicious.

Clear dark gold body with a ring of white lace. Strong, pefumy aroma of hops. Dominant flavor of hops with a bitter finish. The palate is light and dry with low carbonation.

The Lure:
Bright hop illuminations infuse oranges and other various citrus fruit into the dry wood. Tons of C-hops playing gleefully without going overboard.

The Festivities:
A svelte body harbors oranges aplenty, but little fruity sweetness and shy accompanying malts. Bitterness from the hops is portentous, but hop lovers will not be assailed, as this is done with taste. Could use more malt to add a little size and sweetness to thus achieve balance, but that may not be what they were looking for anyway.

Transcendence:
How can you not like the sight of a bunch of children laughing and playing?

Addendum: A slightly aged bottle (1.5 years?) was assailed by wilderness, destroying the IPA part of the beer, making it a grossly churned out Belgian ale with brettanomyces. Will not change the score for now, but I hope they find out what’s causing this.

Pours with a golden-orange body topped by a thick head with lots of lacing. It’s sweet, fruity and full of grapefruity hop notes with a slight maltiness. Medium to full bodied, warming and surprisingly smooth.

Well made DIPA, Thanks The_Beer_God! Honey colored with a moderate white head. Aroma is sweet, fruity, piney and citrusy. Flavor is fairly bitter, but the malt in this beer does a good job softening up the bitterness. The body is thick almost syrupy. Hops dry out the finish.

A hazy amber beer with an orange head. The aroma is sweet and very hoppy - with the hops giving it slight notes of citrus. The flavor is sweet with quite a lot of hops, giving it a citrus note, but there’s also notes of caramel from the malt. The end is hoppy dry.