Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA

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

Damn good IPA. Extreme hoppiness and high alcohol make for a wonderful beer. Beware of this beer as it will knock you right out.

Hey, do you like getting smacked in the face? How about by a beer? Ya, you do! Who's your Daddy? Dreadnaught! That's who! To start off, how anyone can finish a entire bomber of this stuff without being smashed in the face by the massive amount of hops in this beer is beyond human. Ahhh, but it was a pure pleasure to let this beer slap me around for an hour and a half as I nursed the hell out of it. Color is a chill hazed peachy toned orange with a spongy frothed bone white head thats about an inch high and settles moderately down to a hazey top with some bigger bubbles that never leave the edge and the lace lays across the glass in sheets that diminish into strings and spots. Aroma is absolutely wonderful, super fresh and floral, I'm talking right off the vine and right in your nostrils and down your throat fresh hop cones here. Big floral presense and a nice mix of pine needles and hop resin and acidic hoppyness with a smidge of grapefruit and a super fine toasty caramel malt backing. Alcohol warmth hits slowly as it warms. Tasting this is like liquidfied hops or something, super amounts of very floral and fresh resinated hops all up in your business. Complexing floral hops taking total control of your senses and making you recognize its presense as you prepare yourself sip after sip for the next wave. Super full of hops, almost too much, its crazy but absolutely wonderful to behold. The bitterness is quite calming actually, its just a whole lot of fresh; light pine and grapefruit rinds play along the surface with some juicy factions right away in the front, but the largely floral aspect then blooms over the palette and relinquishing it over and over as you surrender to its spellbinding hoppy hold leading through huge fields and tall vines of freshly picked hops eventually leading you back to a quick crispy little hop finish and backing up every sip is a remarkable toasty little caramel malt. Some notes of wood and earth strike the palette in some of the finish as well. Full mouthfeel throughout, each ambrosial sip and heavenly gulp is packed full of hoppy flavor and body. So much so its embarassingly hard to drink. This a big time sipper for me. Perhaps somewhere down the line in time this may become something I could get use to. This just wasn't that drinkable for me. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly, delightfully, pleasurably, enjoyable to get pushed around by this whale of a beer.

100th rating. On tap at the brewery. One big whiff, kicked in the face with big time malt and big time hops. Hard to tell on the appearance since 3F serves in crappy plastic cups. Notes of caramel, bread, bisuits, citrus. Bitter all day. Sticky as hell. I will rerate. This beer probably deserves a 5, but I just can’t give it the 5 for apperance if I cant see it.

Thanks to my friend Ryan on this one. Was a great score and I owe you one. RIght off the bat, ripe grapefruit. Big orange glow in the glass. I was skeptical of smelling mango in the nose as the description says, but its very apparent. The alcohol is really noticible when served cold. Once it warms, the flavor smooths out and the mouthfeel is super silky. An amazing acomplishment for such a high IBU rating. If the money doesn’t matter, don’t even bother with anther double IPA, they’re all amatuers compared...

Big ups to brewblackhole for sending me this one. My favorite double IPA to date. An aromatic hop explosion. Big hop taste lacking the usual sweet sugariness that overpowers some other double IPAs.

This is the end all be all of imperial IPA’s. HUGE, HUGE aroma of grapefruits, and citrus zest. The aroma of this beer is its greatest attribute. It’s like walking through a field of simcoe hops with the fresh malty morning dew dripping from the cones. Yes, it is that good. And if you think it couldn’t get better, the taste is almost exactly as you could imagine. In no other instance have I smelled a beer that so accurately represented the taste. Pungent citrusy hops explode in your mouth balanced by a caramelly sweet malty backbone. Bitterness is very clean and almost subtle for this style. 100 IBU’s sounds like a lot but this beer plays it out well. Mouth feel is oily from the hoppy goodness. Any presence of alcohol is barely detected. This is one damn fine brew.

Draft Three Floyd’s Brewpub, numerous times and in the bottle. Aweosme sticky piney aroma, reminds me of college. Grapefuit and apricot comes through on the palate and the body is dense and full. Finish makes me want more.

Complex, complex, complex. Finesse is near zero, but personality and complexity is over the top. Copper, slighly hazy, thin head,. The aroma: Pine, malts, sweetness, resin (?). The mouthfeel thick and satisfying. The taste is perfection, though again not overly refined, but there is alot going on with this beer. All the taste completely hides the alcohol.