Rock Art Belvidere Big IPA

Brewed by Rock Art Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Morrisville, Vermont USA

One of the creamiest IPA’s I’ve had in awhile. Great mouthfeel. It pours a luxurious dark amber with contrasting white head. A good dose of herbal aromas and pine are noticed on the nose. Caramelly malt comes through nicely on the palate to calm down the hops, and it is far more balanced than I was expecing for an self-proclaimed extreme IPA. Very drinkable and approachable as far as IPA’s go.

Bottle from 46er3498. Thanks Tom! Nose if somewhat sweet with lots of caramel, a little toast, orange and grapefruit skins and leafy hops. Pours amber with a nice soft head and good lace. Starts with a good dose of sweet caramel, toast, and light vanilla followed by grapefruit and orange skins and leafy and earthy hops that linger on the palate in a moderate level of dryness. Good. Drinkability is very good as well.

Shared a bomber at CL CdC release. Pours a deep slight hazed copper/amber with a foaming off whtie head. Aroma is grassy, herbal, ok citrus hops- a bit stale, not quite that powerful- some orange zest, and caramel malts in the backbone. Flavor is also grassy, citrus, herbal, moderate crystal malts- caramel and toffee sweetness, and a grassy slightly astringent finish. Ok and drinkable but doesnt come close to a great DIPA.

In short: Good caramelized malt backbone and lots of hops with a smooth medium bitterness. A surprisingly nice big IPA.
How: Bottle 22oz. Consumed fresh the day of purchase, soon after the beer release
The look: Cloudy dark golden body topped by a medium beige head
In long: The pleasant perfumy nose is very floral, somewhat resinous and a little woody. This is obviously a very hoppy beer. Solid malt backbone with plenty of smooth caramel and some kind of woody sensation. A truckload of hops but never aggressive. This bitterness intensity is medium. The hop profile do not have that focussed dominant flavour. A bit of everything with resinous notes, floral notes, citrus fruits, perfumy notes, wood juice. With its well malted body and a-bit-of-everything hopping the beers ends-up being half-refreshing half-nourrishing. This is certainly the best Rock Art brew I’ve had. And they named it right, this is indeed a Big IPA. Had they always named their big as honestly they would have been selling beers called Bland Barley Wine, Shitty Belgian White and Fucked-Up Dry Stout among others.

Nice amber color with a big hoppy aroma. Big off white head with considerable lacing. Flavor is very big hops, slightly floral and a little dry at the end. Alcohol is well hidden.

On draft at the Blue Dog. A cloudy yellow/amber pour with thin white head. Nose full of hops. Flavor boasted plenty of bitter and citrus hops. The sweet malts attempted to balance out those hops but without too much success! You have to like hops to enjoy this one, and I did enjoy it.

excited about getting this bottle from SuIIy- Thanks again! Pours a clear copper with a beige head. Some big caramel notes well balanced with some big pine, citrus, juicy hop notes. Pretty good stuff!

Bomber. Earthly and pine aroma along with some rubbing alcohol. Burning orange body with mustard colored head. Flavor had some good juicy citrus at first. Then the alcohol took over beer and barley grain noticable. Hoppy dry palate, just odd with that dryness usually comes a hard bittering but for this one the bitterness was rather medium. Decent beer lot going ion here.