Moylans Hopsickle Imperial India Pale Ale

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

golden orange with a big head. big aroma of pine and citrus. smells as sticky as it tastes. chewy hop flavors with a nice malt sweetness floating throughout. finish was was definately bitter but not as harsh as expected. none the less, love the over the top flavor but definately did a job on my palate. wish I could get it here.

dark orange gold color with a sticky, rocky white head. resiny sweet aroma with major pine sap. Hop bite is very astringent - bitter, piney and VERY long lasting. Almost unpleasantly long lasting. Maybe my palate is getting tired of these big beers, but this is not a 99. It’s like death metal from Norway - there’s nothing subtle about it.

Appearance is a crystal clear mild orange with a big sticky head that sustains and moderate lacing. Aroma is out of this world, the freshest of pine resin, swaths of citrus (lemon zest and grapefruit), and a backbone of pale and caramel malts. Flavor is initially bitter pine hops balanced out with sweet caramel and bread malts, opens up to sour grapefruit and light bubblegum, finishes bitter with moderate alcohol warming. Palate is thick and chewy with moderate carbonation. This is paradise for hopheads, plenty of dry and bitter to last the night, tons of flavor, the aroma is out of this world. This is from a super fresh batch and just can’t get over how good it tastes!

22 oz bottle. Pours a hazy golden orange with a smallish creamy white head that laces the glass some.

The aroma is sweet caramel malts, some melon, piney hops and alcohol.

The flavor is hops, hops and more hops. There’s a little sweet malt and maybe a touch of fruit initially. That is quickly taken over by harsh, resiny, charred hop bitterness that lingers throughout the finish. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with low carbonation and slightly syrupy.

Overall, this is the biggest hop bomb I’ve ever had. It’s completely unbalanced towards the hops. Unfortunately, I didn’t really care for the flavor profile. It seems like overall bitterness was targeted and it’s not that great to me - just a charred bitterness with none of the fruits or pine that I normally like.

Oh yeah, Hop Syrup. Clean and clear color, golden caramel. Ample head, sweet, piny nose. super hop. Creamy and soft texture, but with a quite bitter finish. Definately pine resin, bitter, bitter. Lingering. Hop heads unite!

Oh my God it’s so bitter. I love a good IPA, it’s all I ever drink. This is so freaking bitter it’s not even right. It actually gets better as you drink it. The first sip is pretty shocking as is the second. By the third or fourth drink it starts getting better and better. I’ll finish this bottle but I can’t drink more than one of these in a night.

Possibly the hoppiest and most abrasively bitter beer I’ve ever had - and I mean that in the best way possible. To hell with malt flavors and balance, this is nirvana for hop heads. Lemons, grapefruits, and grass for flavor along with a strong metallic bitterness on the back of my tongue. Definitely one of my favorite IPA’s.

2007 Vintage

8/14/2008: This bottle of Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial Triple Hoppy Ale has about a year of age on it, but it still manages to deliver quite a blast of hop flavor and bitterness. Sweet, candied citrus (orange and grapefruit) peel and quite a bit of caramel maltiness mend into a big juicy aroma. The beer has an opaque orange color with a creamy and frothy ivory-colored head on top that creates good lacing on the glass. The flavor delivers a hefty dose of instant citrus bitterness across the entire tongue followed by a nice creamy caramel maltiness and then more substaintial bitterness. The bitterness level is somewhere between high and even higher. However, it somehow still seems balanced due to the hefty maltiness. My guess is that some of the really fresh and juiciness of the hops have faded a bit, but there is still a lot of orange, grapefruit, citrus peel flavor to it along with some floral and resin qualities. It is still more IIPA than Barleywine. Regardless, this beer does not disappoint. It delivers the flavor, the hoppiness, the bitterness, and the alcohol all wrapped up into a medium-full body that glides smoothly over the palate. I personally like this beer with a bit of age on it as I find it overly bitter and more of an enamal stripper when it is really fresh (although sometimes that does hit the spot!)...

1 pt. 6 fl. oz. bottle (Alcohol 9.2% by Volume; $5.99+tax) from River’s Bend Wine and Spirits in Maineville, Ohio. Rating #543 for this beer...