Scotch Irish Sgt. Majors Double IPA

Formerly brewed at Scotch Irish Brewing Company (Heritage Brewing)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Ottawa, Canada

Name: Sgt. Majors IPA
Date: 04/21/2007
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting, 50 More Beers on the Wall

clear copper, wispy off white head, streaks of lace, sweet grapefruit aroma, sweet caramel malt flavor balanced with a bit of the citrus hops but lots

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 6/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 11/20
Rating: 3.1/5.0
Drinkability: 6/10
Score: *4

Thick, cloudy brown w/ a greenish hue & frothy tan foam. Big, fresh hoppy aroma of grapefruit w/ an earthy, herbal aspect & some apple-like sweetness. Juicy, sticky feel. Flavour is earthy & bitter w/ a peppery spiciness. The malt is there, but certainly takes a backseat to the hops.

Also listed as Sgt. Major Squared (on the soldier’s sash). Pours really, really cloudy muddy orange with a quick disipating light tan head. Loads of dirt and grapefruit. Sappy and cider-like. Hard to find any sweetness to mop up all the earth and hop. Nice to try but really difficult to get through. It was the only really adventurous beer at the cask festival.

cask. murky brown-orange with a sudsy off-white head. biscuit aroma with a fair share of hoppiness (that’s probably an understatement) and light yeast. lots of biscuit malt though the balance is mostly skewed towards the chewy leafy hops. citrusy and somewhat resiny and fruity. the finish is long, smooth, and bitter. I surely can’t believe this is 9.5% - it tastes more like 6%. That’s not to say that i’d drink a lot of this though. pretty good.

Volo Cask Days. Aroma is as hoppy as all get out! Cloudy, even murky brownish green, tiny custard head. Flavour is leafy whole hops, from the first sip to the last. Sticky, chewy, full bodied, not the least bit complex (no complaints) Amazing! Perry, I’m always impressed with Your Work!

Cask at Bar Volo’s Cask Days 2005. Pours a cloudy dark orange with a spare white head. Aroma was like a weird medicinal hop and nothing else (I don’t know what ’medicinal hop’ is but it’s what I wrote when I had it). The huge hop flavour is interesting and different but it’s not that enjoyable -- and I’m a huge hophead. It’s a nice try and an interesting failure but ultimately it was hard to drink.

Volo Cask Days 2005. I was really anticipating this one, as Perry at Scotch Irish is always ready to try something new for us beer geeks at various Ontario festivals (thank you Perry!). This one though was a massive disappointment - I’m tempted to rate higher based on reputation alone (and the fact the regular Sgt. was so damn good on cask) but I can’t - this was a beer that was not ready to go - a failed experiment. It looked the part, deep copper colour with a small head. Fresh hop aroma that was kind of weird - certainly very green. Mouthfeel was very full. First impression - very harsh. All alcohol and green hops and terribly unbalanced. As it warmed it became even more so. I know there is a good beer here to be made from the Sgt., and with a little more time I know Perry could do it, but this wasn’t great at all, a noble failed experiment. Good thing I had 4 tickets worth of regular Sgt. instead.