Mendocino Winter Seasonal Imperial IPA

Brewed by Mendocino Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Hopland, California USA

Location: 12 oz bottle from Gilly’s, 11/12/09

Aroma: The aroma is a nice mix of peach and grapefruit hops with some sweet malts as well
Appearance: It pours a hazy burnt orange color with a fluffy and lasting white head and lots of lace on the glass
Flavor: It has a flavor of citrus and pine hops with sweet malts and alcohol, all mixed together
Palate: The body is medium-full with a somewhat dry, sticky mouthfeel, a relatively long duration, and a mild alcohol feel
Overall Impression: I thought this was a pretty decent example of the IIPA style. A well-made brew with a nice body and flavor that just works pretty well. Not super complicated, but pretty good none-the-less.

Great aroma of grapefruit and flowery hops. Very light mouthfeel that’s soft and fluffy but leaves a major impression on and after the swallow. Decent hops that are a bit perfumey, but overall I liked the hop profile on this one. Nice beer.

This bottled brew from a bottle shop poured a small sized head of foamy finely sized off-white colored bubbles that were mostly lasting and left behind a typically carbonated light copper brown colored body and a fair lacing. The nice aroma was deeply hoppy. The thick mouth feel was tingly at the start and strongly tingly at the finish hoppy aftertaste. The nice flavor contained notes of hops and caramel. Delicious and one I would certainly buy again.

The look is a bright orange with a finger of puffy head. Some haze, but a good amount of carbonation. Wide swath of lace. Excellent bitter, piney hop smell. Hops are also have sweet orange peel. Bitter but also citrus. Mild dry malt, but mostly hops. The hops, however, are complex and have more than just one flavor. Sweetness of dry malt taste comes first, then bitter hops. The hops, however, are not brutally bitter. They are beautifully balanced. Bitter but with a sweet finish/respite. The feel is fizzy and a little bubbly. A tad spiky, though smooths out at the end. Creamy as it warms. This is a bitter but balanced beer. Nicely defined. Bitterness is only possibly hindrance to repeats. Otherwise, delicious.

One of the, if not the, worst DIPAs I’ve had in awhile... Super weak, lacking balance, lacking flavor, lacking many things. Mendocino just doesn’t seem to be up on their game.

Orange/amber pour with slight off white head and lace. A very nice citrus aroma. Followed by a grapefruity flavor with nice dry malt. A pretty solid beer that I would drink again.

Hazy amber body with a medium sized offwhite head that deposits lots of sticky lace. Aroma of pungent grapefruit, toasted caramel, and pine. Taste has a dry grapefruity hop bitterness with a pine edge. Toasted caramel malt underbelly. Decent, but far from spectacular.

Flecks of dandruff-like particulate float about lazily in a honey-hazed, copper-colored body under a creamy, off-white head. Sharp, piney and citrus aroma, well-balanced by a rather large caramel maltiness. (Whereas this may disappoint some IIPA lovers, this may have been due to aging.) Hop flavor is very dominant with resiny pine and tart grapefruit. Some tea bitters and caramel sweetness follow, but the aftertaste reverts to sharp, peppery pine. Big-bodied with a dry, astringent finish. There’s no way I could session this, but it was a nice treat when I was in the mood for some high-voltage hops. ~~~~~~~~~~~ 12 oz. bottle of unknown origin, consumed July 2009.