Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA

Brewed by Three Floyds Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Munster, Indiana USA

10X better on draft versus Cask and bottle, as most bigger-bodied beers are, IMHO. Sticky foam atop an unfiltered orange body. Very unique aromatic blend of PNW hops of grapefruit, pine, pepper, orange zest, and apricot. Hints of assorted berries, toast, and honey. Sits numbingly, creamy, and hugely resinous on the palate. Complex flavors follow of brown sugar, sprucy PNW hops, and clover honey. Finishes dry for it size with ensuing citrusy hop belches and lingering pine resin. Stunning in every imaginable way.

Very attractive copper with fully creamy head and excellent retention. Strong citric grapefruity aroma with pine and butter notes. Rich velvety texture with smoothly presented grapefruity and lemony hop flavors, and full rich balancing caramel malt sweetness. Some lemon zest character is apparent. Warming and bitter in the finish. Beautiful stuff.

Update draft at 3F: Aroma of flowers! Strong resin. Puckeringly bitter. Resiny hop flavors. Hop juice! Blazing. Hop saw head cutting hoppiness. Zzzzz-whop bang zing.

very excited to try my first 3 floyd’s beer at the SE winter yeha. actually 6 floyds! so that would make it 18 floyds?? anyway....... 2003 - cloudy orange, almost milky looking. hops and bready malt aroma. flavor is hops and butterscotch. extremely smooth and full bodied, milk-like palate. 8/5/9/5/17. 2004 - cloudy orange with a small head. smooth palate. sweet caramel flavor with some burnt toffee and butter. slightly less "milky" than the 03. 8/5/9/5/18. 2005 - cloudy orange. not as smooth as 04 but still great. 8/4/8/4/17. 2006 - hazy orange with a small head. apricot, caramel, hint of alcohol. hoppier and more bitter than the previous years. 8/4/8/4/16. 2007 - hazy orange with a small head. even less smooth and more bitter than previously. 7/4/8/4/16.

Thanks to Beerdrenched for picking this beer up for me. Pours hazy dark orange / brown with a nice white head. Lots of floral and citric hops on the aroma that are balanced by a good amount of caramel malt. Medium to full bodied with a good amount of soft carbonation. Taste has an even blend of the hops and malt mentioned earlier. The malt tasted a bit musty - could be due to age, I have no idea how long this has been sitting around. The finish gets a bit spicer. This was a very good beer, but I think this was a bit aged. I will have to rerate if I get a fresh bottle. RERATE NOTES 12/6/06 - Much fresher this time. More of a clean hopfest on the aroma, but still has good balance considering the hops included. Much more resiny on this sample. Flavor starts with floral / perfume / grapefruit malt blend with good balance and none of the mustiness. The finish has grapefruit and pine with the floral playing a supporting role. Just a boatload of resin on the finish. Much better fresh!!!

Draught at Brewtopia ’04 Deep amber pour with a nice rich white head. Sweet malt and hops in the nose and a full hoppy flavor profile as well. Hops are just a tad coarse on the tongue for my palate, I prefer strong yet subtle hoppiness. Nevertheless a fine IIPA.

22 oz bottle - 500th rating. Pours a mostly clear orange with a big fluffy head. It has a very inviting grapefruit and hops aroma. The first sip is very hoppy, then as one gets use to it, the hops is still strong, but citrus flavors and big malts to balance it become apparent. It’s lightly carbonated and has a nice full body. The finish is long and crisp, those tastey hops hanging around for awhile. This is a really great beer.

Served on draft. Very creamy off-white head, nice cloudy medium-dark amber color. Aroma is sweet, floral, citrusy (orange?) and has just a hint of caramel. Quite sweet, almost candyish malt flavor, followed by an incredible amount of hops. Super hop!! the notes say, heh. Pineapple, citrus and other honeyed fruity flavors are HUGE. Malt and hop flavors seem to be present in almost equal quantities, and those quantities are very substantial. Finish and aftertaste are sweet and hoppy simultaneously. This tastes every bit an IPA, though. The malt flavors are nice but this doesn’t have a lot of malt complexity. One gigantic beer.

Bomber split with after4ever. Pours a brilliant orange with a fluffy pale orange head. Sweet citrus nose. This is a big beer with a full body, soft carbonation and a malt-sweetened taste laced with hoppy goodness. Surprisingly quick finish. If there’s 100 IBUs in here, where are they hiding?