Pisgah Vortex I

Brewed by Pisgah Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Black Mountain, North Carolina USA

Had this one at the RB Pittsburgh tasting. Honey and hops in the scent. For some reason I wrote "glossy" as the description for the appearance. Clearly the lineup was taking it’s toll on me at this point. Taste is good, reminds me of a super hopslam. Mouth is medium in carb and body.

Bomber. Pours a deep orange-amber with a tall stand of ecrue head. The aroma is quite lovely, full of tangerine, orange, apricot, peach, wildflowers, honey, a little bit of pine, slight bubblegum, only a distant trace of alcohol, some herbal tea, and just a tiny bit of ginger and oriental spices. The flavor isn’t quite as fruity as the nose, but is more focused on the piney hops (what I usually get from Chinook). Some herbal and floral nuances keep it from being too one dimensional. As it moves through my mouth it takes on a strong toasted wood quality. This leads to a semi-dry, quite bitter finish with lots of pine, some tannicity, some lemon, a little bit of cashew, and some apricot. Warm alcohol follows, and into the aftertaste all that citrus fruit I got in the aroma reappears. Very good beer... I paired it with some pulled pork bbq I made and it worked out quite well. Yum.

Hazy amber with a large off-white head. Aroma is of bubble gum, citrus, apricot, spices, pine and hops. Taste is of hops, pine, grass and earth.

magical gift bottle courtesy of turdferguson, the beer sommelier and fedex. very nice translucent light sienna pour with a nice 2 finger orange-creamsicle head that lasts through the entire glass. nose is very delicate and subtle, with hop resin, earthiness and wild flower honey coming through. taste is a well balanced hop bomb. large wildflower honey sweetness in the taste, very earthy hops, and a nice slightly burnt caramel finish. aftertaste is a perfect balance of sweet and bitter, delicious!

Bottle, thanks Ryan! Amber pour, light head. Nice aroma of floral/citrus hops and caramel malt. I get some notes of tropical fruit as well. Flavor is a bit sweeter than I expect, a big malt bill with some tropical fruit flavors and some lost hops. Not bad, not world class either.

22 from Brusin’ Ales muled back from Ethan. Pours hazy amber orange with huge frothy off-white head. Really lovely. Nose shows pretty much equal parts malt and hops... candied orange and pineapple. Also sweet piney resin. Really wish I could appreciate the hops here, but instead of balancing, the malt asserts itself too much. A bit astringent. Not bad, but not my favorite beer (from one of my favorite breweries).

Bomber from Bruisin Ales, Asheville, generously schlepped back to me via emacgee (or, as I like to call him, Commander Douchecanoe). Nice looking pour, cloudy and frothing like something ladeled from a wizard’s cauldron. Sharp and piney aroma, but not quite as complex as one would like (no soft floral notes to balance, for example). I found much the same to be the case with the flavors, which suffer from an overly aggressive use of sugary malts. Solid.

Bottle pours amber color with off white head that lasts and laces the glass as you drink it. Aroma is pure pine with a sublte sweetness. Mouthfeel is tingly from the carbonation and hops. Flavor is biting pine hop flavor, some alcohol, and finishes slightly dry with more hop flavor lingering. Nice.