Victory HopDevil

Brewed by Victory Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Downingtown, Pennsylvania USA

Woow this basterd is pretty alive... be carefull when uncapping.. I wasn´t. Bottle 33 cl. from Ølbutikken, Copenhagen. Pretty fat aroma full of hops caramel, vanilla and some spice. The pour is hazy dark golden with a mild tanned head. The taste is classic american Ipa on the medium fat side. There is a nice spicyness in the finish and the flavour is likewise typical american ipa’ish. The hops are blooming like simcoe. Devilish..njaaaa I dont know...good tasting and pretty bitter...yes indeed..

Bottle at Voldby Ølmesse. Creamy white good mostly lasting head. Amber colour. Moderate malty and heavy hopy aroma. Moderate bitter flavor. Long nice heavy bitter finish. Oily palate. Nice IPA.

Drank straight from the bottle. Did not pour because waitress forgot to give me a glass. Tastes almost like a twin brother to Troeg’s seasonal Nugget Nectar. The only difference is the slightly less piney flavor. Very smooth with a real biting aftertaste. Very well done and very drinkable, considering Victory is notorious for creating overly complex beers. This one is straightforward in name alone, if you like the citrusy tang of hops then you’ll love this one. I think I like Nugget Nectar a little better though.

Bottle (GBBF, 2009) - Amber/copper with a cream head. Hoppy and biscuity aroma with spicy malt, grapefruit, caramel and hints of dried fruit. Hoppy taste with tangy grapefruit notes followed by a strong, bitter finish.

(Bottle) After being sorely disappointed by Victory’s Hop Wallop, I was slightly more impressed by this beer. The hops are very complex and very fruity. There are some unpleasant tones in the hops though too. It’s mixed. I have complaints too about the flavor. It’s not the bitterness that gets me...this beer is too sour. As an IPA goes, this is solidly mediocre in my opinion. You can’t just make a good IPA by adding a lot of hops...you have to craft the beer, balance it, and use high-quality ingredients and a good process. This beer seems very sloppily brewed. As a final note, however, this beer is redeemed slightly by a certain cleanness in its aftertaste that is lacking from some IPA’s. This does make it more pleasant to drink, offsetting the unpleasant sourness a bit.

Overly bitter in my opinion and lacking in promised aroma. Brought the hops for sure, but no flavor to back it up ...just in my opinion.

A red-orange beer with a small head. Aroma was piney,& grapefruit. Taste was a nice fruity-pine taste that gets balanced out nicely by the malt with a peppery hops taste at the end.

A good, solid IPA. I’ve had this beer through three different sources now, two from trades and a six pack now that Victory distributes to my area. I guess I let the hype get to me because I’m still a bit disappointed. I even refused to review the first two times I tried it, thinking that the bottles weren’t fresh enough, but, alas, it’s a good IPA that still doesn’t knock my socks off. There’s a fairly strong malt backbone and a healthy hop bitterness, but neither element is extraordinary. If you’re into balanced bitterness, this is probably your thing. For me, it lacks the delicate hop flavors that I really love in an IPA. That’s certainly not to say that HopDevil is a bad beer. It nearly has the malt backbone of an amber ale. The hops are fairly strong, if a bit one note. It’s easy to drink and quite pleasant.