Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: European Strong Lager
Boston, Massachusetts USA

Bottle. Pours a clear light orange with a thick off-white head. Aroma of sweet caramel malt and sweet fruits. Flavor is quite hoppy with nice citrus and floral hops, light caramel and toasted malt, and a mildly bitter finish. No astringency and perfect balance. Ah, what a delight!

24oz 2005 release. Dark amber color, big rocky white head. Big thick aroma of hops. Flavor of strong resiny hops. Nice, but I am missing the pilsner part 7/5/7/3/17.

12oz 2007 release labeled Hallertau Imperial Pilsner. I’d never heard of this beer when it appeared on the beer store shelves. From the label I gather it was made with only hallertau hops which should be in short supply next year due to the storms in Europe. The pour is a bright gold with a minimal head of tight white bubbles that reduce to lace. The aroma is quite nice. It’s creamy in aroma; I mean the hops are obvious but they aren’t biting. The cream aroma, maybe toast? Really a rare thing to smell in a beer. The flavor better demonstrates the character of these hops. The bitterness is very up-front and bracing. the bitter sensation runs down either side of my tongue and remain well into the finish. I think the malt is what smooths out the aroma but its presence is hardly noticed in the flavor. This is a showcase of bitter German hops. 8/3/6/3/16

Pale golden hay color, quite dim and hazed with a small/mediumish capping of off-white froth that slips away quickly leaving a trace skim over the top and some big globby strings of lace. Pleasingly floral and hoppy aroma with a nice twist of lemon rind and lime skin. Bright, clean, fresh, crunchy, and crisp with some small pale malt ascents and biscuity dryness within. Swell nose; I can just picture the commercial where Jim plants his nose into a heaping handful of hops. Classic! Taste is whole bunch of yum! Very well balanced and drawn upon the fair notion of what some of my favorite IPA’s drum up. Dryish, brisk, crunchy hop tones fly aross the palate quickly with floral citric punch and ponder. Uniquely developed layers and subtle tones make this quite an excellent palate pleaser. There’s a nice tender little under pull of sweet malt thats bordering a candy-like presense, yet keeps mostly dryish, especially as it trials into the finish where it deepens greatly with a nice mix of hop texture, tone, and flavor of floral grasses and pithy citric bitterness grow controllable but powered with lasting vibes. Feel is about medium if not a bit beyond. There’s a nice flow and ease to it as its balance with remarkably well nurtured sweet and pale malt tones the whole way through. The pithy bitterness of hops is so in control yet present it nearly screams, if not begs, to be nudged with a bit more everything, but yeilds a great sublte complexity instead of grass and dried floral stuff. Sammy Adams has a winner with this one! Damn solid! Hope to see it stick around for awhile as I know I’ll be pickin’ up more.

Nice imperial pils!!!! light orange color, nice foamy head, nose is sweet, some pine sol, fresh. tons and tons of hops on the flavor but with a mild malt base. great beer

(Bottle at Salhojankadun Pub on 2008-07-26) Pale amber. Hazy. Big bubbly lightly tan head. Hops and alcohol in nose. Full-bodied dryish palate with some alcohol, quite little carbonation. Hops,resin, alcohol and salty liquorice. Long-lasting taste. The bitterness isn’t too overwhelming. Very strong-bodied. Impressive pils.

Golden yellow and hazy. Can you say some hops? Strong hoppiness in the aroma and taste.

[Rerate 8 / 4 / 8 / 4 / 15] Fresh 08 Bottle - Pours a clear orange with a medium fluffy off-white head. Piney aroma, some grapefruit, resin, sweet caramel, and a bit of tropical fruit which is unexpected. Medium mouthful with very active fluffy carbonation. Flavor is off-dry biscuit with tons of salty and bitter hops. I would not recommend drinking this without some good blue-cheese! [ 9 / 4 / 7 / 4 / 15 Smells like a pine tree, a little less annoying than that of dfh i.i.p.a. Amber pour with medium white fluffy/sudsy head. Sweet caramel malt with some sharp and spicy hops to follow. Very intense, lots of bitter. Salty finish. ]

Pine and lemon explosion in the aroma. Lasting hop bitterness for minutes on the aftertaste. I like a little more malt sweetness to balance out my hop bombs.