Sprecher India Pale Ale

Brewed by Sprecher Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Glendale, Wisconsin USA

Pours cloudy brown with a fine, white head. Aroma is oddly malty. Moutfeel is good and solid. Flavor is rather hoppy with a really pleasant sweet malt backing.

My label says IPA2 Double India Pale Ale, and my label claims 8.4%. 16oz, no date. Clear orange with some brown hues and a 1/2 finger creamy light beige head that fades to a thick ring and film. Hops in the aroma are earthy, spicy, and citrusy. This does get a little stronger as it warms up. Caramel and some fruity yeast are also present. So far, not really hoppy enough for an IIPA. Flavor has the caramel malts dominating, with the fruitiness coming in second. Bitterness is probably among the lowest among all of my IIPAs, topping out at a 3 (out of 10). Alcohol is masked very well. Thin body for its strength, light to moderate creamy carbonation. This is a sucky interpretation of an IIPA. Since it’s 8.4%, I suppose it should be an American Strong.

16oz bottle, labeled as IPA2 Served only slightly cooled, maybe in the high 60’s to low 70’s. Aroma of cookie dough, earthy & spicy hops, dark caramel, some fruitiness. Reddish copper color with a sand colored head. Brilliant clarity. Taste is sweet malt followed by a really earthy (old forest floor) flavor accompanied by a moderate to strong bitterness and some alcohol. I’m not really all that keen on "balanced" IIPA’s, especially those without the typical American hop usage and it seems to be a little underattenuated for my tastes.

Copper/Amber Color with White Foamy Head. Piney, Dark Malt Aroma. Creamy Mouthfeel. Medium Bodied. Sweet Dark Malt With Aggressive, but Balanced Hop Flavor. Still Well Hopped for a Double IPA Though. Some Piney Qualities, Citrus Notes...Bittersweet Hop Ending. Very Decent IPA From Sprecher.

1 pint bottle. pours copper. no hops in nose. awful sent and taste of metal. gross. stop this please.

Pours out a reddish orange color with nice white head. Aroma is big caramel and malt sweetness, a far cry from the usual DIPA that you find here in the states. Taste is very earthy with the same caramel and malt notes with a big hop bitterness. A very different flavor, yet tasty. If you are used to Cali and Colorado IPA’s you might be disappointed, but this is a unique spin on the DIPA.

Bottle labeled as the IPA2 but found out it is just the regular IPA, no problem since I have not had it either: Clean amber hue with a fading frothy head but did leave good lace upon the pint glass. The aroma has notes of grassy and herbal hops with a dash of pepper esters, caramel and bready malts and a hint of phenolic activity. The taste is rather subdued with an okay bitter presence but the malt seemed to dominate the flavor profile too much. A light spice character upon the finish. The mouth feel is only slightly aggressive and there is a stand-offish metallic finish. Okay if you think of this more akin to a British styled IPA using American hops.

Pours a deep red-orange with brassy highlights and a very good head with good lacing. This was a little "off" for me, right from the aroma, which had a sawdust-like quality. The first taste is of some fair hoppiness, with that sawdust in the background again. Not much dimension to the hoppiness -- a little bit of pine, maybe the barest hint of orange, but it wasn’t excessively bitter because it could just plain use more hops. This is one of those beers that don’t seem that far off -- a little tinkering with the recipe could produce significantly better results. But at this point I’d have to call it another of Sprecher’s misses in their recent flurry of new styles.