Moylans Hopsickle Imperial India Pale Ale

Brewed by Moylans Brewery & Restaurant
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Novato, California USA

Amber-orange, nice head, big, sticky, and puffy, hangs around quite a while. Nose is hoppy (not surprisingly), some grapefruit with lots of pine. Flavor is . . . I’d like to find a better phrase than "painfully astringent", but that’s about all I can come up with; this is hoppiness taken to an extreme, trying to suck as much bitterness out of the beer as possible. It’s a harsh mix of grapefruit and concentrated pine resin. Any residual sweetness dies at the swallow, all the malt backbone fleeing in terror at the overpowering harshness of the hops. It is, at least, not cloying and has a reasonably good palate, decently full without being sticky, but this is yet another case of bigger not necessarily being better; simply adding as much bitterness as possible to an IIPA does not mean it’s even vaguely good.

Getting my notebook online. Bottle. Pours a light orange. Lots of hops on the nose. Flavors of pineapple, grapefruit, and hops. The name left me wanting for more hops but still a good beer.

Bottle from Hollingshead. Pours a very rich, copper/orange. Nose is sticky hop, pineapple and grapefruit. Pineapple and a tad of malt and caramel flavor at the onset, which is quickly overtaken by hop and grapefruit bitterness. Very nice mouthfeel with a perfect amount of stickiness. Excellent Imperial IPA.

Big resiny hop nose. A little body odor. Malts are hard to come by - a little sugar caramel. Sugary flavors with resiny hops. Long resiny bitter finish. Very bitter. Copper color.

Bottle. Pours a clear light orange with a small white, foamy head. Aroma of bitter grassy, garlicy hops and bitter grapefruit. Flavor is super bitter and a little too bitter for my tastes (even as a hop lover). The hop profile is a little off too. Not a fan of this one.

Bottle. Wow. Bottled grapefruit. Dead on grapefruit bitterness. Having a beer like this makes me realize how often I too loosely use grapefruit as a descriptor. This is the real deal. I’m sort of indifferent to grapefruit as a fruit, but here in beer form it tastes luscious to me. Quite a fluffy mouthfeel for a massive 9.2% IPA. And that’s all I got.

Pours a nice cloudy copper color with a creamy, glass-sticking head. Big pine and grapefruit hop aroma, with a touch of toasty caramel malt fighting through at times. Flavor follows the aroma, huge bitter grapefruit and pine flavors don’t even try to be balanced by the slightly sweet malt undertones. Thick and lingering on the palate, with a big bitter finish. Seriously tasty!

Pours a beautiful hazy copper color with thick white head. Aroma is a great combination of citrus hops and caramel malts- almost a tropical fruit note with a combination of pineapple and toasted coconut. Flavor consists of tart citrus up front, herbal notes, some residual sugars, caramel, and toasted malts. Palate isn’t too sticky, either. Very nice.