Leinenkugels Big Eddy Imperial IPA

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

Overall, the single best IPA I’ve ever had. Hops, Hops and More hops... To make sure that I wasn’t losing my noodle, I asked friends, family and the very best in IPA conniseurs I knew. Bottom line... Phenomenal blend. The beermeister knew what he was doing when he crafted this baby, outright fantastic and on ALL-AMERICAN hops. This beer should start a new class of ales. the AAPA. the All-American pale Ale. Only on tap now, so the next question is, when will they bottle it?

I don’t how a you can brew a better enormous beer than this. The Simcoe, Amarillo, Warrior and Cascade hops magically malest your tongue while the large ethanol and malty sweetness come to the rescue to perform a unparelleled balance of harmonious humulone! Leinenkugel has been brewing lagers for a long time, which we all know are harder to brew than ales . . . they obviously got tired of convincing the world and brewed a beer that can stand up next to any IPA on earth- CONGRATS MILWAUKEE!

I’m not going to pretend I know a ton about beer and use too many technical terms BUT I know what tastes great and this beer fits the bill. HUGE flavor. My first IPA and from what I understand...the only IPA I ever need try. Great job Chippewa and 10th Street plants!

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!

I’ve been fortunate enough to try this on more than one occasion, first on-tap, second on cask. Pours a magnificent amber color with a creamy white head leaving rings of lacing around the glass. Smell is incredibly hoppy, full of citrus and grapefruit which dominates, but still shows signs of a solid malt base. It’s certainly got plenty of bitterness, not as many as some DIPA’s, but it definitely doesn’t lack hop flavor. Mouthfeel was medium to full bodied with really soft amounts of carbonation. Very drinkable beer; Leinie’s still has the capability to produce amazing beers.

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.

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.

You can smell the hops a mile away, and you can tell its a wonderful cross of different hops,the complex hops array shows up in the taste, the combination is one of the best new hop tastes I’ve had in a while, fruit and carmel sweetness mix in,but the hops overpower it and dry it out,seems like it could use a touch more body,but its by no means thin. It seems like I’m looking for reasons to dock this ,but just can’t come up with anything. Great job guys ,keep em coming