Vinos Rock Hoprah Imperial IPA

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

Draught at GABF 2008. Hazy orange coloured with a medium sized off white head. Sweet aroma of hops, caramel, fruits and grape fruits. Sweet and fruity flavour of hops and grape fruits with notes of caramel. Hoppy finish.

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

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.

(Draught) Pours a lightly hazy deep amber body with a medium beige head. Aroma of pineapple, mango, papaya, grapefruit, some florals, and light pine. Flavor of pineapple juice, apricot, grapefruit, and caramel malt with a dry, bitter finish.

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.

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.

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.

Sampled GABF 2008
This beer has a frothy, tan colored head that sits on top of a pretty dark for an IIPA, brown-amber colored beer. The aroma is quite sticky and sweet with an ample caramelized hop character; aromatic notes of candied ruby-red grapefruit zest, citrusy spruce tips, concentrated bergamot and a nose-tingling herbaceous pine note. This is very aromatically hoppy, but the sweet caramel malts play a huge role too.

The flavor seems to have a bit more caramelized grain character to it than overt sweetness, but that is here too; the malt seems to add a bit of a murky, toasted grain character that comes off as a bit muddled and confused. The hop character is a bit more dominant than the malt, and contributes flavors of grapefruit, candied orange, tangelo and ample lychee. The body of this beer is thick and chewy, so much so that this is definitely a sipping brew. There is lots of lingering hop bitterness to this beer as well as astringent hop flavors that contribute notes of pine and a menthol / herbal note.

This is a bit too malty for my tastes; it is way too focused on crystal malt flavors and is too thick and chewy (really almost a Barleywine in character). Hopheads who can get past the over-abundant crystal malt should find this enjoyable though.