Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA

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

22oz bomber. Pours a nice clear copper color with a lively head, like a slightly overprimed homebrew, that dissipates pretty quickly. The aroma is somewhat malty for an IIPA with some resinous hop aroma lurking. The flavor is bitter up front, a nice blend of malt sweetness blending with pleasnt hop flavors in the middle, and finished with a slight sweetness complimenting a nice spicy hoppiness. Overall it is much better than I would have expected.

22oz. Bottle: Aroma of hops, vegetables, herbs, butter, slight marijuana, and hints of mango and tangerine. Poured amber in color with a small to medium-sized, dense, off-white head that lasted throughout. Crystal clear. Slightly sparkling. Small lacing. Flavor is medium bitter. Tastes of hops, herbs, light butter, pine, slight alcohol, slight grain, malts, and vegetables. Medium body. Average texture. Hoppy, bitter, vegetal finish.

22 ounce bottle from Wine Warehouse in Charlottesville, VA. Pours a light copper color with a two finger head. Good head retention and fair lacing. Citrus hops in the aroma with slight resin and metal. Taste is sweet malts with citrus hops. Fairly sweet with a slight bitter bite at the end. Medium bodied.

On tap at Stone. Amber color with a light head that completely disappeared. The nose was lightly sweet and malty. The flavor is warming in the mouth. Big and fuzzy and fills the palate. From there it turns sharp at the end.

Fresh draught at Sunset Grill, 2/7/09
We don’t have a tap handle for this, so someone just used the Hop Ottin handle. I actually was surprised to learn this wasn’t Hop Ottin, so that’s not a good thing.
Plain old cascade/chinook-like citrus in the nose has touches of spiciness and bits of light pine, but is otherwise completely drowned out, on the end, by an overly bready/doughy maltiness and strong honey-caramel character.
An initially pleasant, if somewhat light burst of hops produces peach, grapefruit, candied orange and cherry flavors, but is gone before you can analyze it, leaving in its place honey dough and sweet caramel, and surprisingly little bitterness on the end. I’m not in to much bitterness, but this has to have more, just to balance the malts. There’s nothing bad going on here, as far as off-flavors or unpleasant malts/hops, but it’s like they were just planning on making a pale ale. This isn’t a double IPA by measure of the hops and something obviously went wrong here. Way, way, way too reserved/muted in the hop department, especially given this stuff is brand-spanking new. Looks nice, as always, from AV, though.

Bright amber color with a medium off-white head. Aroma is of hops and fruit, namely peaches and apricots. Flavor is of hops and flowers.

A vigorous pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a four-finger thick, off-white colored head that . The beer is a clear, lightly red tinged, rich amber color that shows an absolutely brilliantly clear, richly red hued copper color when held up to the light. The aroma smells of sweet citrus fruits, though it is a bit restrained for a Double IPA; notes of tangelo, kumquat, weak tangerine juice, and some tart star fruit. There is a touch of malt character here once you start to root around the nose; cracker like grain and perhaps a caramel at times is noticeable. The aroma really is a bit weak over all, though it is not bad.

The flavor is again extremely weak for a Double IPA, it has the hop character of a slightly hoppy Pale ale. It does have a bit more body than a Pale ale, though this is still drinkable; in fact this is one of the things they seem to have gotten right, as the body is pretty spot on for a Double IPA. This is of course hop dominated and the flavors remind me of washed out lychee, muted tangelo, orange juice as well as a vegetal hoppiness that really isn’t very appealing. The malt is incredibly clean here, which is not unexpected with this polished beer and the malt is actually subtle like it should be despite the lack of overt hoppiness here. This has some bitterness to it, it is fairly solid, though not overly aggressive for the style.

This is just a very disappointing beer, the hop character needs to be multiplied by at least two times before it will be worth trying again (for me at least).

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Very interesting, unique peach and citrus hop aroma. Rich malt and nice citrus hops in the flavor as well as rich malts seem to be marred by some buttery diacetyl.