Vinos Rock Hoprah Imperial IPA

Brewed by Vinos Brewpub
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Little Rock, Arkansas USA

08 Vintage at the Restaurant. Pours a thick dark red brown color with a beige top. The smell is candy cookie sweet and wonderful, along with some nice hop fragrances on the fruity end of the scale. Thick on the palate. This beer is a wonderfully complex balance of alcohol, sweetness, malt and hops. It just has a lot of everything. I would love to age some, but they only sell it by the glass... drat.

GABF 2008. Pours clear tawny with an average, creamy, light brown head, mostly lasting with good lacing. Aroma is average malt (cookie, cereal, meal), heavy hops (flowers, grass, pine), average yeast (sweat) with notes of apple, pear, and peach. Full bodied, creamy texture, average carbonation, and a bitter finish. Long duration, moderate sweetness, acidity, and bitterness. Very nice fresh hop nose.

very weird double ipa, very murkey waters indeed. Awesome blend of malts with the big time hops. I really enjoyed a beer that was as heavily malted as it was hopped. Lots and lots of alcohol in the head and body. Great beer, want more.

Date: 10/12/2007
Mode: Draft
Source: Brewfest, GABF

muddy burnt orange, frothy off white head, huge citrus hop aroma on sweet dark caramel malt, rich malt flavor balanced with lots of citrus and earthy hops, just a touch of malty sweetness is balanced by a growing bitterness,

Aroma: 7/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 14/20
Rating: 3.6/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

GABF 2006. Amber bodied. Small white head. Nose is citrus fruits, some citrus peels, light caramel, hint of maple, and light evergreen. Taste is more citrus and pine, stronger malt backbone and caramel. Body is medium-full with moderate carbonation feel. Ends with more citrus and pine along with that orange peel bitterness and reduced caramel.

GABF 2006: Lightly hazed amber color with an off-white head. Citrus and caramel made up most of the aroma but some pine started to come through. Pretty nice. The flavor was even better. Huge fresh hoppy pine flavor that ran the full length of the beer. Long bitter finish.

Ridiculously sweet nose, full of unrefined residual sugars that don’t fit too well with the floral, citrusy hops. Appearance is a deep golden, mostly lasting white head covered. Dries out considerably in mouth, but the texture remains syrupy, citric and juicy oriented. Glad to know I don’t have to move in Arkansas yet.

GABF 2005. Golden with a small white head. Sour apple, pine needles, and bitter orange peel aroma. Wow, I got a lot of butterscotch in this, maybe I’m overly sensitive, but the diacetyl in this was insane. Some piney hops and lemon citrus in there, but the butterscotch killed this for me. Too bad.