Moylans Hopsickle Imperial India Pale Ale

bomber from ben’s wine and spirits reno, nv: Dangerous brew: this beer should have a warning label "for hopheads ONLY" Do not attempt to drink this beer if you do not like excessive hops, you will be making that ugly grimace all night and trying to wash your mouth clean. Aroma of nothing but hops, I can’t smell the malts in there but they must be there somewhere. Proper IPA copper color. Flavor of.. well sorta like chewing on a fresh hop flower. The flavor lingers in your mouth just about forever. Drink with caution, but hophead’s dream come true ;)

Pours orange with an off white head. Aroma is citrus, pine, hops, and more hops. There is a quick citrus taste when it hits the tongue before an onslaught of hops. This beer has a really long dry bitter hop finish that isn’t that appealing to me. I felt like a need a sip of water after every sip of beer. If you are a major hop head than this is the ticket.

Amazing aroma of hops, pine, and oranges. Great slightly hazy orange/amber pour with a medium frothy off-white head. Great initial citrusy orange sweetness and a fantastic layered hop finish. The hops come on lightly mid taste, ramp it up as you swallow and then settle down to an easy bitter sensation that lasts forever. Nice creamy body too, great for such a powerful IPA.

Big bottle. Pours orange with a soapy white head. For some odd reason when I saw and smelled this beer it immediately reminded me of that Lennygoogle Sunset Wheat beer. I know I didn’t spell that correctly and I’m too lazy to look it up right now. Anyways. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it is very light in color with an orange tint, it’s hazy, and it smells very sweet. Smells different to me than most DIPAs . Can’t decide if it’s an overwhelming aroma of sticky, fresh, citrusy, grassy and earthy raw hops or if it’s an overdone, cloying mess. Ironicaly it reminds me somewhat of DFH’s 90min. That’s one of my favorite beers in this style. This one, not so much. I feel like it’s missing the malt. I know it’s all about the hops here, but this beer just seems too bitter, dry, astringent and one sided. There is too much alcohol burn where the malt should be. Probably not a beer that I will seek out again, but I am glad I tried it. On a side note: I dig their labels. I like the fact that a "personal" e-mail address is included along with a map to their place. It’s kinda like reading the cereal box when I’m eating breakfast, I like to examine the beer bottle as I’m drinking it.

Hmm...well, forgot to rate this one last night when I rated it for a friend’s blog (cvillebeergeek.blogspot.com). I’ll post that rating here.

Appearance: Pours a dark amber color that is pretty typical of an IPA. There is a two-finger head that shows decent retention and some nice lacing on the side of the Duvel tulip (Duvel... crappy beer, awesome glass). 4.0/5.0.

Aroma: The website says this beer contains Tomahawk, Centennial and Cascade hops. The bottle claims Cascade, Simcoe, Columbus, Ahtanum and Chinook. So, who knows what we’re really dealing with? Nevertheless, this exhibits a very strong hop aroma. Flowery, with a faint bitterness in the background. Some sweetness too... maybe a tad bit too sweet. 4.0/5.0.

Taste: Sadly the taste is not quite sweet enough. The hops come through immediately and without pulling any punches. There is a little bit of a metallic taste, though it’s not too offputting. A little bit of a honey sweetness is there, but it’s not nearly strong enough to balance out the hops. Finish is bittersweet, with a grapefruit taste that is typical of IPAs. The alcohol is hidden well. 3.5/5.0.

Mouthfeel: Thick and sticky. Some styles are meant to be thick and sticky, but not this one, or at least not this much. Though bitter, this beer is not too harsh. I would think it’s a nice entry level beer for the hoppy-as-all-hell type IPAs that have been so popular lately, but I’m pretty sure my idea of what constitutes entry-level hoppiness is a bit skewed by now. 3.0/5.0.

Drinkability: Well, I think I already covered this one in mouthfeel. That’ll show me to try to use someone else’s rating system. 3.5/5.0.

Overall: 3.65/5.00. Not bad. A little bit off balance, both in the aroma and the taste, but still a very drinkable IIPA. If you’re really craving a good hop fix and there’s no Two-Hearted, Hopslam or Ruination around, this will fit the bill quite nicely.

Medium shading towards dark orange amber, decent head, quite clear. Aroma was pure hops, lots of resin and pine. Flavor was clearly a hop bomb, focus clearly on resin and pine hops. Some citric in the background added complexity. Gummy caramel accented malts provide a nice counterpoint and some balance. Really well done, thoroughly enjoyed this one.

This beer is, simply stated, everything a liquid homage to the hop should be, from its bright, subtle, and slightly hazy orange appearance to its endless resinous, floral, piney, and citric palate that goes on, and on, and on....

something in the water in california. seems like pretty much every dipa that comes out of that place is made in heaven. im glad i can get this 100 ft from my back door.