Valley Brew Uberhoppy Imperial IPA

Brewed by Valley Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Stockton, California USA

(Thanks to Papsø for sharing) Bottle. Cloudy amber colour with a huge head. Nice aroma of hops, citrus and melon. Flavour of a lot of hops, the taste have trace of melon, citrus fruitness and a note alcohol, very wonderful and very nice made.

(Bottle 35,5 cl) Courtesy of KrausenJockey/aspidites. Pours a hazy, reddish, amber golden with a gigantic, lively, off-white head leaving laces. Aroma of caramel and hops. Quite full-bodied with lots of caramel and fruity aroma hops. The finish is dry. I could perhaps have wished for even more fruit in the hops. 310507

Bottled. Thx. Papsoe for sharing.Dark amber coloured. Unclear. Dense beige head. Fruits, sweetness, herbs and flowers in the aroma. Light pine notes. Flavour of perfumed pine, herbs, light spice and light caramel. Is well balanced, and has a full body. Quite dry and citric. Has a balanced delicious bitterness in the end. Nice.

Deep murky amber in my snifter with a whispy off white head. The nose in this beer is just incredible for hop heads. Sticky sweet caramel nose with grapefruit rind and pinnapple notes. This has a full mouthfeel and the hop burn makes my tongue tingle. The flavors in this big beer include grapefruit rind, orange juice, pinnapple, apricot, good bread, caramel, and pine resin. This is one of those beers that makes your lips stick together. The alcohol is a noticable sensation but does not distract at all from the rest of the flavor profile. This is a great use of big hops in a big beer. Many thanks to ClarkVV for this unexpected and much appreciated treat.

Hazy, light amber with tiny off-white head. The aroma is lots of citrus hops, grapefruit, apricot, tangerine with some sweetness. The flavor is grapefruit, tangerine, orange peel, bread, some caramel and fairly dry. Medium body with lively carbonation and an astringent, hoppy bitter end.

This is a big beer, starting with a big crisp wild hop nose, a nice amber color, and a big mix of bitter hoppiness and good kick of alcohol.

Bottle from KrausenJockey drunk on 4/16/07
Holy mother of God! This aroma certainly caught me by surprise. I was expecting a lot, but this just blew my expectations out of the water. I sat there and sniffed it for a good 10 minutes, not wanting to take a sip for fear it wouldnt live up. Just a magnificent bouquet of fruits including mango, papaya, red grapefruit, passion fruit, melon, orange, lime, cherry, strawberry and whatever else you can discern in this. It dries out a fair amount, towards the end, with zesty orange and nectarine-like notes that further add uinqueness. Bold, huge, juicy, and lasting, it gets in your face and sticks around. Very lacking in bitterness, it’s almost all dry hop and finishing hop aromatics. Malt stays out of the way, as it should, only adding light pale malt sugars to give the hops a bit more sweetness/juiciness and a solid backbone to rest upon. I didn’t find any overt acidity, alcohol, cattiness, or b-vitamin yeastiness. Wow. The best bottled DIPA aroma I have found. Even surpasses the original batches of Goose Island DIPA in its complexity, I think. Goose Island IIPA was more watermelon/red grapefruit focused and didnt have the tropical fruits, floral and more dry, assertive citrus complexity of this. I don’t think Goose Island had the sheer intensity of this either. Let’s add one more "Wow" for good measure before moving on.
With a nose like this, you know the flavor can’t be bad, and that’s definitely true here. Though I thought the body was just a bit too dextrinous, I’d rather it be a bit on the fuller side to help soak up the acids, than on the thinner side and leave them exposed to attack the palate. Lots of citrus, dry orange peel, white grapefruit and a definite pineapple flavor on the finish build up, with a fair share of the tropical fruits and cherries mixing in. Creamy, engaging carbonation is very impressive if this isnt bottle conditioned. Bitterness definitely notable, and builds up a touch, while there is some light warming from the alcohol on the finish. But I never got any of the fusel, or harsh, blatant alcohol flavors mentioned by others, and I certainly let the stuff warm and breath.
It’s a tall order brewing these beers and it’s an extreme juggling act to balance the hop bitterness and high gravity of the beer without it being either too bitter/acidic or too syrupy/sweet. This one comes about as close as any I’ve seen, especially taking in to consideration that this is a bottled brew, and DIPAs characteristically take best to a fresh draught line.
Fantastic, maybe in subsequent batches they can thin/dry the body out just a touch more. If you don’t love the nose on this, you should pretty much give up on the style.

Hand bottle shared by bgburdman at C-Bus 6, thanks! Dark orange pour with an off white head. Nice aroma dripping with citrus-floral hops...some grassiness as well.Light sweet malts support resiny citrus hops...this stuff is hop juice all the way through. Medium body...starts with hops and ends with hops. Awesome stuff!