Pizza Port Hop 15

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
San Marcos, California USA

I had four IPAs at O’Briens in one night and this was the highlight. Very hoppy beer in both aroma and flavor, but what made this one great was the in the background malt presence. Really brought some balance to this beer and made it great.

2009-02-06, bottle at Ølbaren, Copenhagen, 9-5-8-5-17=44
Cloudy amber color, creamy head. Excellent aroma of sweaty hops. Good balance, powerful hop, sweetness and resins. Great.

2007-11-02, Papsoe Blind Tasting, 8-4-8-5-17=42
Cloudy orange-amber color. Very nice aroma, extreme, hoppy, resiny. Good body structure, strong flavor.

RAF: BIG Cascade aroma with a wonderful copper color. Nice bitterness. Hop flavor is really enjoyable and is the highlight of this beer without an invading bitterness. Piney, slightly acidic.

This was a profound experience. I hate 95% of most hop-laden beers. This one was different. Beautiful aroma--so freekin’ intense, like fresh grapefruit extract. Just so pure. Then came a rush of pine. Flavors of orange, pine, just a little sweet, really nice, with a note like candi sugar. Low bitterness. My best ever "big hop" beer?

GABF '03, Deep amber in color with a small white head.Sweet malt,citrus fruits and alcohol aroma and flavor.

Another one of which I’ve had numerous samples at different fests but have failed to review yet, so here we go. All have been draught samples, the most recent being at EBF ’06.
Just a stunning appearance, really. Dense, near Orval-like head is wonderfully well-retained. You have to be very patient to let it settle down so that you can unlock more of the aroma than what it gives off at first while the head is still large. The body is lightly hazy, amber-beige with light lemon-lime skin hues, miniscule bubbles and sheets of lace as it proceeds down the glass all too easily. The nose shows light tropical fruits, easygoing citrus (lemons, limes, red grapefruit), smooth undercurrents of honeyish malts and a splash of tangerines and almost wintergreen esters on the end. Profound and sinus-clearing, it is minty and herbal, yet at the same time citrusy and sweet.
The flavor is a cacaphony of hops, yet they seem wedded to the malt better than most examples. The carbonation effortlessly carries the bright and lively hop flavors and pale sugars, hand-in-hand, while light bits of lime tartness and a scratch of pine surface towards the end. Strong and certainly warming, but otherwise tremendously well concealed is the alcohol. Like the best in its class (in my mind), the hop flavor far, far, far exceeds the hop bitterness/acidity. Nor does the malt become cloying or overly syrupy. Lingering on the finish, I keep finding little hints of mint/spearmint/wintergreen, something like that mixed with a delectable hint of lime. I don’t find this to be extremely bitter at all. Medium-full to full body, tight, expressive carbonation, no wateriness or thinning whatsoever. Give me a bit more malt complexity and maybe throw in some more tropical fruits or something to further stand this one apart in the style and it would be perfect.

GABF 2005 and a pint at the Falling Rock. Deep golden straw body with a filmy, just off-white head. Amazing, fully rendered hop goodness in the aroma. Nice diverse hop flavors with an aggressively bitter and abusive finish... but in a very good way. Stands out in a crowd that is difficult to stand out in. I’m an advocate of hop blends and this is Exhibit A (albeit an extreme exhibit).

Another great beer from Pizza Port. Nice amber color with tons’o-hops! Had this beer again and of course the hops mellowed out a bit. Sweet, without being the sweet malt monster these big hop beers have after aging. Sept ’04, it’s the GABF Imperial/Double IPA Silver Medal Winner. Rock on Tomme.