Schooners Alpha Avalanche

Brewed by Schooners Grille & Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Antioch, California USA

Date: 03/27/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting

clear dark orange, lasting wispy off white head, streaks of lace, big sweet pine aroma mixed with grapefruit citrus, big sweet tangerine and pine flavor, nice light biterness stays out of the way, caramel malt stays in the background as well and is there to support the hops, nice sticky character,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 8/10
Score: ***+/4

Bottle sampled on 3/27/07: Transparent deep golden bronze pour with a thin ring of spotty white head. Fresh, grapefruity citrus hoppy aroma has nice underlying pale malty sweetness. Starts with good light malty character and lots of fresh, slightly earthy bittering grapefruity hops toward a well-balanced crisp bittersweet finish.

Bottle thanks to Stoutlover72. Poured a golden orange body with thin head, nice ring and lacing left. Aroma is very hoppy and piney, grass, citrus and grapefruit. Sweet sticky flavor with a slight alcohol burn. A little syrupy and bitter. Pretty good. Bottle said 9.2%, do we need to update the info?

22oz bottle shared courtesy of jasonmech77. Poured a medium and lighlty hazy amber color with a small sized off white head. Aromas of pine, grapefruit, caramel and orange peels. Tastes of pine, light grapefruit, melons, bready, and caramel. Light alcohol in the finish. The lable on the bottle had this listed as 9.2%.

Thanks to jasonmech77 for sharing this one. Pours a translucent golden orange with a smalller bubbly off white head. Aroma of pine, earthy, some citrus and floral. Some caramel malt, alcohol, orange creamsicle and hints of vegetable. Flavor of of upfront bitterness, pine, grapefruit, bready, some toasted malts, kind of harsh hop bitterness and missing the malty sweetness you would be looking for in a good DIPA.

on-tap @ Cato’s. amber-gold with a dense white head that retains well and leaves good lace. citric nose, but fairly subdued for a DIPA. fairly dry with decent hop pungency, but again subpar for a DIPA. nice enough beer, but a fairly mild entry for the style.

Draft at the Bistro DIPA Fest; nose of citrus and caramel; copper witha small beige head; flavor of caramel malt with some citrus hop bitterness.

Dark amber colour. The aroma is more reminiscent of stale bread than anything else. Very chewy, brown sugary character...not nearly the hop character the name implies. A little iffy not only in terms of stylistic adherence but also enjoyability. Overwhelmed by others in the tasting.