Alpine Beer Company Exponential Hoppiness

Brewed by Alpine Beer Company (CA)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Alpine, California USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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A well carbonated pour from the growler easily produces a three-finger thick, creamy textured, light tan colored crown of froth. The beer is a lightly orange tinged, full amber color that shows a lightly hop-hazed, orange-copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma is very sticky with hop notes; candied grapefruit, huge lychee, apricot & other tropical fruit notes are quite noticeable even while pouring this brew. A focused sampling of the aroma gets aromatic notes that lean much more towards the herbal / pine side of the spectrum. Though the beer still smells of sticky, sugar preserved hop buds. The sharper side of the hop produces notes of grass, pine sap, some slight chive notes, a huge hemp oil contribution. It is interesting that this was so intensely fruity smelling as I was pouring it, but that a focused inspection of the aroma is much more dominated by concentrated herbal & essential oil components.

Sweet and thick tasting with a ton of residual malt sugars, these are not by any means overwhelming though as this has a huge hop character that easily offsets the malt; in fact the residual malt sugars are not even overly noticeable because of all the hop character. Sharply bitter, with lots of green, astringent hop notes and a finish that tastes like what I would imagine chewing on a fat, juicy, marijuana bud (though there is lots of malt to keep this from becoming over-bearing). Up front and through to the middle some nice, underlying citrus & tropical fruit flavors are found; these contribute flavors of lychee, candied ruby-red-grapefruit, orange-marmalade and peach concentrate. This is clearly dominated by the greener hop flavors; in addition to the piquantly expressive hemp-oil flavor there are notes of chives, mentholated pine, lots of herbal turpenes (rosemary, garlic chive and a touch of sage oil). Thick and chewy, this is approaching a Barleywine in heft, it just retains enough lightness to retain the IPA allusions though. The plethora of hop character also keeps this from every getting sticky or cloying. The malt character is clearly a supporting character, really not noticeable on its own, but it plays a significant role in carrying the hop character.

My second pour of this beer reminds me how very well carbonated this beer is; visually it is quite apparent, but the beer is thick enough that it is not as noticeable in the flavor as one might think, though it does add a certain prickle / lightness to the beer as it flows across the tongue. This beer doesn’t seem to take to warming as much as some, the combination of hops and alcohol gets a bit harsh after a bit.

Big, powerful, overbearing, an exercise in self inflicted tongue flagellation, but is it good. It most certainly is, but it is a bit too astringent & hemp-oil dominated for me. There are times when I can enjoy a scathing, tongue scraping, astringently hoppy beer, but most times I like something a bit more drinkable. Definitely a beer for the enthusiastic hop head. I am not sure if I am getting more discriminating or if I am just getting burned out on over-the-top beers, but this is not nearly as enjoyable as I expected. I really do enjoy excessive amounts of hops in a beer, but it has to have a drinkability and finesse that this beer just doesn’t quite have. Still this is a good beer, though it is one I really only want a 12 oz serving of (luckily I could share my growler, because there was no way I would finish it on my own).

Bomber courtesy of thome50 during Free Beer Week 2012. Thanks! Pours a clear golden-amber color with a medium sized frothy tan head. Decent head retention. Sticky hop aroma with resin, tropical, candied citrus notes along with caramel malts, wood and a faint bit of sawdust. The taste is intensely bitter hops... grapefruit, melon, tropical notes, lemon, toffee malts, peppery wood notes, vanilla. Medium-full bodied. Just the slightest hint of the alcohol. It’s hop juice... just as I expect from Alpine, but it does have enough malt to balance. Nice beer.

The aroma was overpowering with sweet malty notes. It almost smelled like a bucket of paint it was so overdone! Flavor is similarly complex, with an opening salvo of malt sweetness, undercut by very bitter citrus notes and piney hop bite. Pours a hazy golden yellow with mid-sized head. Very strong alcohol content really catches up with you, even as you sip this. According to the bottle, this is really a triple IPA, not simply a double, and I’d believe it.

Bottle@Work (oops). Aroma full of apples, malts and hops (not fruity, not grassy, what is it?). Yellow, off-white head, good lace. Pretty sweet, fruity (mainly apples), very bitter, lots of grassy/fruity hops. Very alcoholic, which makes you feel the bitterness comes from the alcohol instead of the hops. Bit unbalanced but not bad. Certainly not very exciting.

Bottle thanks to thome50. Cheers man ! Pours the definition of beer. Perfect, glistening orange with a small, lacey white head. Nose is punchy tropical fruits. Massive pineapple and passionfruit. Lots of sweetness but a pleasant balance at the same time. Taste is perfectly balanced and surprisingly scarily easy drinking for an !1% abv beer. Big on stone fruits and tropical fruits. loads of citrus. So much ’summer’ flavours going on. Damn tasty. Medium mouth feel is maybe it’s only downfall but the 11% is masked unbelievably well. Freakin’ awesome !!

Pours a clear dark orange color with a thick white head. Aroma is pine, citrus, and grapefruit. The taste is so fantastic. I had this on tap at Alpine this week. They brewed a single batch for some judges that were in town and I got lucky enough to walk in on the day they tapped it. It was so fresh. This is a hop lovers dream. It’s really strong but the alcohol isn’t all that noticeable. Great beer!

22 oz. bottle, pours a hazy golden orange with a small off-white head. Aroma has truckloads upon truckloads of resinous hops, tons of caramel malt to back, quite a bit of tropical fruits, and some subtle oak chips. Flavour of intense tropical fruits and resinous hops, with lots of sweet caramel malts to back. More malt than Pure Hoppiness it seems, also more bitter. More intense, though probably on the same level of enjoyability as PH - would love to try this fresher. Awesome IIPA.

Bottle shared by either Jredmond or Vtafro I think. Pours golden orange with a white head. Tropical fruity hoppy aroma, with lighter piney notes and lightly sweet caramel malts. The flavor has tropical fruit, pine, caramel malts, and a hint of garlic. Nice, but just a bit too big, I liked Pure Hoppiness way better.

22oz bottle pours a clear, bright orange with some wispy white head. Big, pungent nose, garlicky, scallion, pine, grapefruit, a little paint thinner, flowers, onion. Full flavor, buttery, paint thinner, onions, malty, oranges. Full bodied, lightly sweet finish,

Hazy gold, wispy white head. Nose is super fresh, dank weed and wet earth, light grass. Flavor is lightly syrupy, orange and weed, high bitterness through finish. Thin sticky body, but nice

Bottle; Pour is slightly murky honey gold with a fine bubbled whitish head in this snifter; the retention isn’t that impressive, with some light lacing present here. The nose is pungent hop notes ; florals, resinous hops, with some caramel and honey sweetness. The flavor profile is heavy on the bitterness, with more resinous hop notes, florals, some pine .. and the sweetness is nice enough from the malt bill ; There are some fruity notes but I found them a little lacking - apricot, and some tropical fruit as well - What I also find is that this one has some dryness on the finish, and I do notice the oaked element very briefly. This one is a bruiser ; my palate is wrecked now - but I was glad to try it.