Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA

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

22oz bottle. Hazy, sparkling, golden-honeyed body topped with a minuscule head of white color that becomes a thin ring and does not lace. Mouth is fullish with very light, creamy carbonation for a fairly wet finish. Honeyed, floral aroma with definite hop presence via pine. Very mild, lightly-malted flavor of honeycomb, honey, pollen, and a slightly grapefruit rind, more like pine finish which is long and increasingly bitter. Alcohol is invisible. Session-like drinkability.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for DIPA’s. There’s a few styles of beer that I just don’t seem to get enough of, and this is one of them so when my local BevMo stocked a new one in, it was a no brainer to get it and share it with my bro.

The beer pours out a cloudy, medium amber color with a one-finger thick dirty white head. Aroma is fairly balanced with a strong grapefruity/pineapple bittersweet combo going on and it worked for me. Supported by some lesser floral aroma and some alkeehol...it was decent enough. Flavor had some major balance going on with the bitterness being heavily influenced by the caramel malts. Tropical/citrus fruit was the biggest flavor profile, then the sweetness to really cut thru the hops. Finish was a bit on the hot side. Enjoyable? Yep. Don’t expect a hop bomb though. Reminded me of some East Coast DIPA’s.

Bomber courtesy of DarkElf. Pours a slight hazy amber with one finger off-white head that leaves decent lacing. Nose is sweet malt and grassy hops. Taste is caramel, mango and sweet citrus with a mellow pine finish. Medium mouth feel. Not very hoppy for an IIPA, but still decent. Thanks for sending it Stephen.

Bomber. Poured fiery medium orange with a short cap of off-white head. The aroma picked up alcohol-fired caramel and grapefruit meat sweetness with floral and citrusy hoppage around.. not bad, but perhaps too boozy. The flavor had plenty of citrus as well, both in terms of sweetness and bitterness.. pine, grassy, and citrus bitterness rode through the finish, and again, everything was amplified by the boozage. Syrupy and heavier-bodied on the palate, really rockin’ the sweetness and alcohol strength on the back.. decent balance if you really grasp for it.

22oz bottle. Golden-amber pour with a nice frothy head. Looks tasty. Lots of grapefruit in the aroma along with a touch of pineapple. A little bit of a metallic/mineral note as well. The flavor does have some malt to it but the malt is overpowered with that same metallic/mineral presence. Not that it’s bad, just over powers the malt. Plenty of grapefruit and some earthy spice too boot. Medium body, semi-dry. A solid brew.

Pours with a golden orange with a white head that mostly diminishes over time. Aroma is of citrus fruits mainly oranges, and maybe some lemon, hops, and some yeast. Flavor is hoppy. Slightly a sweet initial taste followed by bitter finish - pretty standard IPA in my opinion. Not my favorite IPA, but decent nonetheless.

Bottle shared with Hogtown Harry, Blankboy, Jerc, Mabel, and GregClow, courtesy of Harry and Mr. Blank (two bottles). Dark orange, small white head. Resiny hop aroma - yum. Great hoppy taste - again resiny, oily. Awesome, loved it, my favourite style done very well.

Pours a gold/deep orange with frothy white head. Quite a nice IIPA, but pretty standard for the style. Grapefruit, orange peel, caramel malt, floral hops, and hints of bread. Tastes good, worth a try, but nothing special.