Two Brothers Heavy Handed India Pale Ale

Brewed by Two Brothers Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Warrenville, Illinois USA

Lot 2525 bottle drunk on 4/22/06
Orange copper with a heavy strawberry blond highlight. White head is small, remaining briefly at partial cover and mostly at a ring. No lacing, light chill haze. Aroma is coppery, rather metallic and odd. Very dry, centennial-like bitterness and some plant-like notes. Dry, herbal, citrus tea, you might say. Not overly aromatic, but rather dull leafiness. Everything is so dry, with crystal malts papery and rather hard. Munich malt sourness is notable.br>Flavor is caramelly and lighlty sticky, though drying out with a citrus zest, herbal tea spiciness and green, wet, leafy hops. Quite plant-like. Some spicy hops mix with lighlty toasty malts while carbonation, low and large-bubbled, still provides some refreshment as it pulls the spiciness along. Flavor is bitter, but other than orange tea, it just dosent have all that much hop flavor. Mlats are dry and not overly deep. Fresher bottle from the fridge that I had a week before this showed much more bitterness, but in my opinion, not much else. And bitterness levels are not really indicative of quality. Just too wet, no pun intended (it’s a wet-hop ale). Large, loose-bubbled carb is not engaging enough and hop flavors are too dull.

In the bottle. Pours a dark copper color with a rapidly dissipating head and awesome lacing. Strong aroma of citrus & pine. Sweet malt aroma peaks out as well. The sizeable hop bitterness masks the malt in the flavor. As this warms, the floral and malt aromas begin to compete for the piney hop bitterness. Thick chewey finish that makes the mouth dry.

Pours deep gold into a shaker. Conglomerate head leaves lacing as it recedes. Citrus and pine notes. Light carbonation -- very little mouthfeel. Bitter finish. Just sort of slips down....

Cloudy light brown color with a small head. Flavor of citrus and hops. Lightly carbonated. Not my style of beer.

Bottled. Amber colour. Grapey aroma, sweetish candy-like. Grapey flavour with notes if pinetree. Hop chock. Wonderful, well balanced beer. An amazing example of the IPA-style. I´d prefer less malt sweetness though. The bitterness was sensed in the middle of the palate, whilst the citrusy tones spreads freshness. Full body, long finish, soft and enjoyable!

Bottled. Dark amber colour, low head. Big nutty hop nose(centennial I believe) and notes of grapes and pine. Very fruity in flavour, also caramelly with a nice balanced bitterness that lasts long. Flavouring hops are pretty laid back.

Bottle courtesy of Beervana. Pours a clear amber with a not very long lasting head. Scents of malt and fruits. Didn’t really detect much floral hop nose. Palate is malty and sweet, with some hop bitterness in the background. Flavors improved as the beer warmed and was nicely balanced

12oz bottle.
Pours clear auburn-amber with quickly dissipating pillowy head and nice lacing. Very inticing citrus & pine aroma with some malt showing too. Take a sip -- what happened to the malt I detected in the aroma? Flavor is all hops, mostly piney and bitter -- where’d the floral and fruity notes go?. Seems more bitter than its indicated 62 IBUs, though some of the bitterness subsides as it warms and the malt almost makes a showing. Medium mouthfeel and slightly oily finish. Has enough kick to satisfy hopheads though I doubt even they’ll find anything outstanding about it. The best Two Brothers I’ve had yet, though that’s not saying much.