Leinenkugels Big Eddy Imperial IPA

Formerly brewed at Leinenkugel Brewing Company (MillerCoors)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin USA

Tap, mid-March 2007 at the Wicked Hop.
Transparent, magnifying and honey-copper-brown in color with a pillow foam lining the top of the glass, stretching to a quarter inch high and instigating blanketing lacing throughout. Wonderful aroma of rosy strawberry cotton, sweet sugared starfruit, dried apricots, honey encapsulated grass and smooth colombus-esque crispness. Big beer indeed, as the maple and almond butter seal sweet grapefruit chews. Chewy amaretto flavored grass sticks stir in the chewy, supple body. Cherry spruce gels onto honey grahams, proving to be quite sweet from a flavor hop point-of-view. Bitter gumminess hangs at the mouth’s crest. Mandarin, starfruit, papaya and grapefruit all meet under a tropical, sugared sweetness to form a flavor hop fest in paradise. Essentially what we’re dealing with is all of the company’s potential unleashed in a single batch that’s near perfection.

Orangish copper pour w/ a small dense white head, and a nice lacing. Nice aromatic orange & carmel w/ hints of pine. Full well coated palate lightly creamy. Flavor is heavy citrus orange peel some light tropcial fruits maybe a touch of strawberry & a good amount of carmel w/ a lighty piney bitter finish. One helluva lienies product.

Sampled from a growler shared by goldtwins. Pours a transparent clear copper orange with a spotty-lacing white head. Great aroma is bursting with a ton of fresh piny and grapefruity hops along with some sweet caramel malty notes. Body starts with a fuller sweet caramel maltiness with plenty of fresh piny grapefruity flavor hops toward a sticky, crisp, amazingly balanced bittersweet finish. I’m very surprised to say that one of the best imperial IPAs I’ve had is from Wisconsin.

Poured a clear copper color with a small off-white head. Big nice fresh hop forward aroma with a sweet caramel base. grapefruit, orange and pine. The flavor started as a mix of oranges (hops) and caramel malt. Some citrus starts to enter then a piney and bitter semi-dry finish. Long finish. Some warmth. Medium to full bodied.

Tap @ Romans. Clear dark amber color, dense white head. Overall a typical but very tasty IIPA. Grapefruit over a plum-sweet crystal/pale malt base. Teh flavor gives you marchino ycherr sweetness underneath with resinous grapefruit on top. Medium mouthfeel with a sticky-sweet finish.

On tap at Landmark 1850... Copper, amber color. Smell of Hops, malt, caramel, little grapefruit, hops, pine, sugar, citrus zest and hops. Taste the same but with some light alcohol and some spice added into the wonderful mix. What a wonderful bitterness at the end. I can’t beleve Leinenkugels came up with this. A must try! They have to bottle this gem!

On tap at Centenniel Bar & Grille in Mequon. Slightly dusty (?) copper body, forced fizzy white head. Fruity hop aroma, nice start to the beer. Pine and pineappled caramel. Flavor is citrusy (grapefruit) crisp hops with a good amount of caramelly backing. Slight simcoe-like stuff int he background. I ts mostly a nice citrus thing though. Very good beer overall... not unlike other IIPAs. And really, though the flavor was good, it lacked a nice overhopped or resiny/creamy palate. Maybe it was the carbonation or temperature that got in the way (though, it wasn’t that cold). Either way it tasted great, especially considering the source.

On tap at Wicked Hop. Poured clear caramelly-brown with a short, average-looking off-white head.. cool translucent copper effect when the head died down. Aroma was wonderfully-aggressive with spicy pine and grapefruit hoppage, grapefruit meat and drawn caramel beneath.. opened up with warmth to show some floral and pears... WOW!

Heavy, slightly-boozy grapefruit meat and a lightly-toasted caramel base in the flavor surrounded by huge floral, grapefruit, pine, and spicy hops.. tons of flavor with a long satisfying finish! Heavy bitterness on the palate with an ideal, thick, resiny grapefruit and caramel base.. left a thick, hoppy film on the back of the teeth. Excellent brew! Please continue in this direction.