The Tap Doublelips Imperial I.P.A.

Growler courtesy of maniac. Medium amber, clear, decent creamy head. Aroma was a load of pine. Flavor was pine with some faint biscuit malts. Not complex, but not bad either.

Clear amber body with a small creamy tan head. Sweet pine and citrus hop aroma with a caramel background. Sweet pine and citrus hops flavor with a mild caramel background and a floral flavor coming through in the ending. Medium-low carbonation with a fairly smooth bitter finish.

Draft at the Tap - 10% ABV - Dark copper, creamy light tan head (great lacing left behind). Hoppy aromatics lead with a huge pine and spruce blast. Warming brings out softer notes of white grapefruit zest that rides a sweet toffee and nutty earth backbone. Concentrated hop flavor is laced with fresh pine, spruce, and hints of citrus. Pulls out nice balance as the bitterness gains a light sweet caramel malt in the end. Full bodied, medium carbonation, warming, bittersweet finish. Loved this sippin brew...

Tap. P ours a golden orange with not much head. Nose is hoppy, but they are not free to roam. The flavor is a lovely balance of hops and malt with a viscous, sticky, sweetness. I thought that Leatherlips had more unruly hops than this twice the lips. This was delicious, sweet, fruity, and with a great hoppiness in the back.

[growler samples at the Steve Bernard farewell tour] Thick, dense hop aroma. Slightly earthy and sweet. Golden copper color. Caramel malt flavors, with a powerful hop foundation. Sweet floral citrus initially, then the hops turn more earthy, with a rather dry finish. An awesome brew, overall.

12oz glass @ The Tap. Good aroma, sweet. Caramel, orange, buttescotch, earthy, florally (that doesn’t look right). Cloudy orangy brown color, small but thick head that stayed most of the way. Good lacing. Bittersweet flavor. Like aroma though I get a citrus/astringent bite to it that I see others did not. Maybe that’s the cask factor. Medium body, syrupy creamy mouthfeel, bitterdry finish. Nice, though a tad sharp maybe. Well worth the trip.

Cask pint, freshly tapped on 6/19/06 at Redbones.
Medium-high clarity shows very good brightness from the outset. Cherry-red with some auburn and darker ruby hues is the body, complemented by a large, mostly well-retained off-white head that provides light lacing in patches. The beer seems a little bit colder than I would expect, as the cask must have just been pulled from the keg room. Some light carbonation seems added, as they do at Redbones sometimes.
Anyways, ripe hop acids, deep leafiness and mountains of fruitiness rush forth, bursting with cherry, orange and lively, sweet pears. Green, dense, chewy, acidic hoppiness is immediately at odds with dark caramel and heavily sweet pale malt sugars in the nose. Some prickly bits of grass and flowers, and really nothing in semblance of pine or heavy citrus, thankfully (for my tastes). But acidic and very hickory-nut skin-like. Pungent, I suppose. No alcohol in the nose, with a medium to medium-high strength.
The flavor is not as malty as suggested, which is odd, but the high amount of hop bitterness and acidity seen in the leatherlips translates well here, cutting the caramel malts and sugary notes, with a very deep, green, thick, almost cannabis-like buddiness. I use all of these stupid descriptors not to be cute, but because it’s quite unique to my tastes and very different from your average Double IPA. Certainly no California DIPA, and hardly resemblant to any others I’ve had anywhere. But well-malted, quite tight in the mouth for a cask beer and with plenty of chewiness from the malt on the finish, perhaps a bit too much. The residual sugar makes itself known more in mouthfeel than in sweet flavor and the hop notes are very robust and engaging, without being terribly drying or crisp. Some toasty, earthy, almost English-like malts and light nutty yeast round out the beer, with no alcohol noted in flavor.

Draught 10.5oz glass at Red Bones 6/17/06. Pours a cloudy copper color with a small foamy white head. Head lasts. Nose is light caramel malt, some floral hoppy notes with some light grass and earthy hops. Palate is thick and syrupy with a smoothness. Flavor is light caramel and lots of nice floral and earthy hop notes.