Mad River Steelhead Double IPA

Brewed by Mad River Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Blue Lake, California USA

Bottle. My first Double IPA , A hazy Golden amber color with lots of creamy white head. The aroma was malt and hops and bread. The flavor is awesome,nice thick mouthfeel,and the perfect balance of hops and malt with a yeasty bready background, everything about this offering was very good very tasty, the only downside is that I only had one.

Bottle. 12 fl. oz. An unclear, orange beer with thick, frothy, off white head. Aromas of grapefruit and butterscotch. Creamy texture and full-bodied with little carbonation. Flavor is nicely balanced with heavy malt sweetness and a lingering bitter ending. Much more malty than most IPAs I’ve tried. Similar to Indica from the Lost Coast brewery, only stronger.

12 oz. bottle. Orange color with a cream colored frothy head. Some spots and specks of lacing. Sweet caramel malt aroma with peach/apricot maramalade, floral and piney hop notes. Sweet candy/caramel malt body infused with mostly pine and resiny hops, maybe some grapefruit as well. However, this comes across as forced-- like if a bunch of piney hops were ram-rodded into long-boiled malts. A bit too sweet with no intriguing nuances. As a side note, I think this was the first 2IPA I’ve come across in a screwtop 12 oz. bottle.

Pours a hazy golden amber with a one finger creamy yellow head. The nose is fruity, citrusy, resinous hops, sweet, a tad earthy. The flavor is earthy and malty, sweet, grapefruit rind, piny, bitter. I prefer this draught to bottle but both are still really solid, a totally underrated DIPA.

Bottle: Pours a hazy deep orange topped by an off-white film of head. The aroma has some cookie malt, alcohol, perfumy orange spice, and a vanilla/light caramel background. The flavor starts with lots of sweet notes of vanilla/caramel- in a fairly creamy body with some cookie-like malt character, peppery orange, mild alcohol flavors, and a slightly minty/piny finish. A solid profile, slightly sweet, nothing very special, however.

Bottle from Ibrew, thanks dave. Dark amber in color. Not much head. Good lacing. Aroma of sweet hops. Taste is alot maltier then expected. Hops are there just not over-powering. Sweet as well. Carbonation level and texture are just right. Overall a decent DIPA. Thanks again dave

Pours a very cloudy amber with little head that is all but nothing 2 minutes after the pour(no lacing). This one is lacking smell, which is wierd for a double. The flavor is sweet with malt and not enough hop character. It finishes with a not so good floor cleanerish sort of taste that lingers for awhile. Overall, I will not be trying this one again which is suprising because the regular IPA is wonderful.

Bottle from Total Wine in Roseville, CA. Somewhat malty for an IPA and lacked the typical hops. It hit you with all the flavor up front and then just fell off. A very average brew.