Upland Bad Penny Double IPA

Brewed by Upland Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Bloomington, Indiana USA

I believe this recipe is of a home brew competition that gets brewed by upland? Poured copperish amber in color with a medium sized tan head that left great lacing on the glass. Aroma of citrus, and piney hops, with a nice sweet malty backbone. Tastes of strong sticky resiny piney hops, with sweet citrus and oranges. Nice caramel malt base. The 10% ABV is incredibly well hidden. Besides the lambics, this is by far my favorite from Upland and certainly one of the best Double IPA’s I’ve had in a long time.

On draft at the brewpub. Had a couple snifters of this while there picking up my lambics. Pours a nice dark gold in color, with a nice pillowy white head sitting atop. Smell is very funky hops. I’m getting a lot of floral centennial in the nose. Very well balanced and smooth in the flavor. I’m really digging this DIPA. You never get a hint of the 10% abv at any point. Very enjoyable and something I could drink an awful lot of. Well done.

Draft: Poured at the brewpub when I went down to pick up my lambics...translucent copper color with a sizeable white head, good retention and lacing. Nose had massive amounts of fusel notes to go along with some piney hops and sweet malts. Medium-full bodied. Cloying sweet and hot at this point...some of the bitterness from the hops comes through with some mango and peach but not enough to cover up the alcohol. Decent stuff but not quite to my liking.

Big snifter at brewery (I wrote down Bad Penny as the name?): Clean deep coppery hue with a mostly lasting head and spotty lace. The aroma has notes of resiny leafy and piney hops, grapefruit and salty esters, bready and grainy malts, and some metallic notes as well. The taste is nicely balanced between the hops and malt, twangy and citric as well. The finish displays some clove and pepper, rounded palate. The mouth feel is lively and refreshing, dangerously drinkable for the ABV. A really nice brew all around, not a enamel scrapper but not boring either.

Draft at the brewpub. Pours clean copper orange with a sticky off white head. Nice Juicy Fruit bubble gum aroma. Really one of my favorite aromas that can be found in beer. Strong pine flavor with a lingering bitter grapefruit finish. Medium/light body with mild carbonation. Really well made and dangerously easy to drink. If you leave Upland with out trying this, you are dumb.

This one was awesome. I wanted a growler to take home, but they did not allow it because of the 10% ABV. The aroma to this one is dank; much moreso than most other IIPAs. Smells like wet plants. Very pungent, I loved it. Pours a nice, deep dark orange-amber, with some thin lacing. Flavor is very very nice. Like chewing on hops. Very earthy. Some notes of floral and citrus hops, but just an overwhelming earthy, plenty flavor going on here that is missing from a lot of IIPAs. Some malts and some syrup too, very much in the midwest tradition of the style, but very big and very bold. This one was great.

On tap at Upland, big batch of Upland homebrew contest winner. Pours a beautiful copper color with a thick cream colored head. Aroma is huge pine, light citrus, light malts. Flavor is pine, cedar, grapefruit, caramel, alcohol. Palate is medium bodied, sticky, resinous mouthfeel, medium carbonation, finished extremely bitter. I was told 7 different hop varities were used. Great stuff, hopefully will be more than just a one timer!