Samuel Adams LongShot Double IPA

Brewed by Boston Beer Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Boston, Massachusetts USA

12oz bottle served in a tulip. Hazy golden orange pour with a thick head of slowly fading beige foam. Decent lacing. The aroma included fresh grapefruit, pine, a strong note of tangerines, and a good dose of sweet pale malt. The flavor had strong, abbrasive, bitter grapefruit rind and pine. Some malt tries to sneek in, but the bitterness quickly overtakes it. The mouthfeel was full-bodied and sticky. Lightly carbonated. This is no Pliney, but it is pretty decent.

If this is a Pliny clone, then I have been drinking a completely different Pliny for the last several years. This ain’t bad, but it’s very malty, and more reminiscent of 90 Minute IPA. Super hoppy, but very malty at the same time.

Two years ago I thought this was the bomb but my buds say its way too vegetal and herbal despite some really good qualities: the bitterness, citrus flavor and sweetness. The texture has a nice tingle to it. If only this guy ran the brewery!

Certainly had hops. A nice copper color with a white head that had nice retention. Aroma had big pine notes and a noticeable citrus quality, some caramel malts. Flavor was good but seemed to be all hops needed a little more malty sweetness to it but otherwise it was decent. Finish was crisp and the body was full.

12oz. bottle. Freshly citric aroma, juicy and floral, full of grapefruit, honey, pine and showing some faint caramel sweetness. Hazy medium amber color with a lasting, fine head and nice lacing to match. Flavor profile is fairly well dominated by the significant hop presence, both in citric, spicy, piney, earthy flavors and huge bitterness, although towards the finish, enough toasty, bready, sweet malt appears to keep things mostly in check. Lasting fruity hop character. Oily, resinous, effervescent, gently warming mouthfeel, body is massively full. While enjoyable, it’s not something I would pick up regularly, even given the opportunity -- something about it feels overly heavy, weighty.

6/03/2009: Well, Sam Adams LongShot Double IPA is one solid Double IPA. It does not disappoint! The thick, cloudy, deeply golden colored beer has a generous amount of carbonation and a lasting, thick and creamy ivory-colored head. Both the aroma and flaovr are equally complex and hoppy. A hefty of roasted caramel-toffee malt has a heap of earthy, pine, resin, citrus, and floral hops on top! There is not only a heap of hop flavors, but the bitterness is pretty high as well. This beer has a medium-full body and is chewy yet somehow seems smooth. It is also thick enough to stay on the palate and allow the flavors and bitterness to linger long after swallowing. All and all this is a well-balanced beer that has been worthy of the wait for it since the delay in making it last year due to the hop shortage. This Double IPA can definitely hold its own among even some of the big boys. Wow, Sam Adams should work out a deal and just add this beer to their Imperial Series!

12 fl. oz. bottle (Purchase before SEP 2009) from Party Town in Florence, KY. Rating #196 for this beer.

12 ounce bottle in pint glass. Hazy caramel with lasting head and lace. Lemony grassy fresh hoppy aroma. Toasty light brown sugar with subdued fruit, nutty, very piney lingering tongue-tingling bitter finish with a slight malty cloy. Medium-full slightly sticky body. Nice carbo. Very complex but some of the thick doughyness is a little offputting. Still, very good.

Darker,Gold. Fat,lacey,froth sits above a tight,beaded,head. Huge aroma of pine,grapefruit,leaf,and slight alcohol. Thick,creamy,little too much carbonation for me.Totally bitter upfront(Rogue like) with caramel,bread,and more hops follow. Finish is lingering sap,floral,hops and malt.The bready,nutty,caramel malts open up much more as this warms. Cold this is just bitter. Served the way I like(chilled),this is a big, fairly balanced hop bomb.