Moylans Hopsickle Imperial India Pale Ale

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

Cloudy orange colour with a small white head. Hoppy citric aroma with notes of pine and fruit and hints of some malty caramel sweetness. Hoppy citric flavor on a malty caramel sweet background. Dry hoppy finish with notes of fruit.

Good cream-orange head over oreange-amber beer. Dry hop bales, bit of ureum; dry spicy seeds, mandarine peel. A very dry version of orange, or rather, mandarine marmalade. USA C-hops to the fore, but with an excellent malt-backing, lightly roasted. Ends on bitter-resiny. Medium bodied to well-bodied, very slick, even oily; alcoholburn. Very good double IPA - one from the specialists to the specialists. Thanks, CK!

Bottled. Slightly hazy orange coloured. Big hoppy aroma. Very hoppy flavour with a bitter finish. Quite good.

Pours amber with a white head. Smells of resin and peppery. Tastes resiny, bitter, some sticky sweetness on the finish.

My Bottom Line:
Pungent leafy, piney and earthy hoppiness clings to the tastebuds into the wee hours, and just doesn’t want to leave. Yeast and caramel maltiness aren’t cohesive enough to elegantly accompany this massive hop dose, but I’m not sure that was the intention anyway.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A screen of foam shields the chunk-laden orange.
-This is so severely dry-hopped, it’s hard to perceive what beer there is underneath.
-In the end, this isn’t in the major leagues of Double IPA in my book, yet it sure knows how to quench your hoppy needs.

Bottle; no date.

Bottle (LCRBM08): A bit hazy, deep golden coloured, small white foamy layer; solid mix of sweet pale malt and extremely aromatic, piney hops; very dry bitter flavour, medium to full bodied; lingering - that’s understood - dry bitter finish, balanced by a subtle sweetness. Great, great stuff..........

650 ml bottle. Cloudy deep amber-orange beer with a thick sticky off-white head. Gorgeous hoppy aroma. Juicy grapefruit and tangerine citrus over some sweet toffee malts, toast and bread. A bit tropical as well. Also some leafy/grassy and slightly resiny aroma. Resinousness doesn’t overwhelm the sweet fruitiness, but rather serves as a bit of an accent. Flavour is also fantastic, sweet pineapple/mango tropical fruit, some orange and grapefruit as well. Sticky mouthfeel, very grassy hoppiness balanced by a kiss of medium crystal malt, light sweet caramel. Bitterness is less that I would have thought based on the aroma, but as you get through the glass, it becomes more and more intense. Loads and loads of hop flavour. I’ve been craving hops for quite awhile and this bottle definitely hits the spot. As the beer warms up a bit even more complex hoppiness comes out, big piny notes mingling with all the grassy and fruity elements I mentioned before. Spectacular.

22oz bottle bought at John’s Marketplace. Slightly hazy orange body with a creamy light tan head. The smell, of course, is the hook on this thing... so rich, creamy, lightly spicy hop cone explosion... it’s a circus of sweet melon, spicy orange and pineapple and sweet lemongrass. The best IPA/IIPA nose I’ve ever had. First touch on the lips is lightly active, then more rotund and harsh across the middle, ending a little smoother than it suggests, with a residual sticky sweet honey and hop coating. Flavorwise it doesn’t really blow me away - it’s a little too caustic, and really the problem I have with double IPAs as a whole is the nails-down-the-throat abrasiveness, which this one doesn’t attempt to avoid. Overall it’s good, something I could smell forever, but ultimately a letdown on the palate. Of course that’s just me being picky.