Mendocino Winter Ale (05/06 - IIPA)

Formerly brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Saratoga Springs, New York USA

Bottle.2005 edition. If they just called it a regular IPA I would rate it even higher- very nice hoppy/resin/grapefruit flavor with a lingering but not overwhelming bitter finish.Slightly reminicent of SNCA . A very good beer that I will buy more of.

12 oz bottle, from Blue Max in Burnsville, MN (Dec 2005). Pours a clear dark chestnut with a fine, lasting moderate head....huge doses of fruity hops in the nose, orange and grapefruit and apricot, very sweet and fragrant and promising an easy drinking experience...but, on the tongue the bitter assault commences immediately, a dry burning woody character prominent at first, fruity-creamy sugar coming back in the middle, but the pummeling resinous tones swing back at the finish for a very dry, long and stinging conclusion. Plenty of malt overall, good balance and decent complexity...hey, these guys are on the right track.

RATING NUMBER 2,000!!!!!
I toast the 52 RateBeerians who’ve gone before me, and I thank the brewers, vendors, Linda, and The League of Strange Beer Drinkers for all helping to make it happen!

Excellent pour, a deep orange-amber with a thick off-white head that laces to the end. Strong grapefruit, pine, and lemon zest hop bitterness over a rich caramel malt scent fume vigorously from the glass. The hops win out in the taste (great for this hophead), but the sturdy malts make sure you remember them. It’s got a LONG, lingering bitter finish that kept me grinning until my lips cracked.

My 1,000th rating was Ak Bars. Thanks, Randy, for making sure that I didn’t miss this one!

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Extreme citrusy aroma and flavor. Pure grapefruit. A good IIPA, but would like a balance of citrus with more piney and flowery hop notes.

I agree, with some other posts, these guys really need to do some more ad. work if they are going to continue to make such a good beer. I really don’t like this brewery that much, but they continually score with this beer. The pour is picture perfect, nice clean firm head and a radiant cooper-crimson color. The aromas pinch the nose and draw it right into the glass, wow: grapefruit (certainly the Cascades) the herbal spice, the earthy undertones bouncing off the gorgeous malt fruit. Everything here is in balance and the 9% is well masked. I really didn’t pay attention to the abv. until I stood up for beer number 4, what a rush.

Bottle courtesy of Degarth. Copperish amber. Small white head. Nose is rife with caramel and juicy hops. Lots of pine and citrus blended into this one. Earthy hops, grapefruit, orange peel, and pine needles all come forth at some point in the aroma. Taste is a bit more even. Pleasant caramel sweetness to this and a enriched hop backbone. Stick malts, pine cones, grapefruit juice, orange rind and blooming flora. Body is medium with mild carbonation. Obvious lingering bitterness and a slight stickiness at times. The finish brings out more hops. The sweetness and malts die down quite a bit here and it’s showing off for the hop-heads. The 9% alcohol is completely unnoticed. Bit of melon coming through towards the end and a hint of maple but otherwise, as mentioned, more citrus and hops. Not bad!

Mendocino Winter 2005 says Imperial IPA on the neck label. Had they made it clearer, I’d probably have jumped all over this a lot sooner. The porter last year was quite good, but DIPA is the sure fire way to put away an extra cold night, if you ask me.

The pour was orange-peach in color, with a superbly lasting, nearly two finger thick head, and lots of small bubbles rising through the glassy liquid. And that solid curtain of lace left around the entire glass was simply a feast for the eyes. The smell was a gentle cascade of citric fruits, with grapefruit being the chief. It was not overly resinous, but was not timid by any means.

The taste was a lot softer than the norm for the style, with easy drinking hop drizzled, caramelized apricots taking center stage. Citric hops were tangibly evident but not overly bitter, and made me wish that Mendocino had put more of them in the brew. Drank pretty much like a single IPA, except for the lingering warmth, which was the only legacy of the 9% ABV hidden so well.

Warmer temperature brought out a little more spicy oomph out of the hops, but the beer remained supremely drinkable no matter what the condition. If you seek balance in your DIPA, look no further than this Special Release while it lasts.

One rant. Twice in the last two weeks I have gone to add rate only to have "This feature requires login by a registered user’ come up and my review gone. I refuse with this one I remember the numbers and I did comment that I was going to rerate. So that’s it for now.