Arcadia Hop Rocket 11th Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Arcadia Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Battle Creek, Michigan USA

On tap at Six N Save, New Kensington. Old chicken grease and herb aroma to this - not quite cheesy but close. Big hop nose, spicy, with light pot notes. Some sweetness. An odd nose. Hazy medium amber with thin white lacing head. Medium bodied with medium carbonation. Starts sweet with medium malt sweetness and a bit of caramel. Hops are milder than expected but pretty tasty. Fruity with citrus and brown sugar. Quite a bit of cheesy meaty flavor for some reason. Decent IPA with fruity finish and mild bitter after.

Arcadia hop rocket Murky orange with a medium tan head that slowly dissipates leaving thin patches of lace. Excellent aroma of caramel, citrus, grapefruit, pine and a touch of alcohol. Taste came across as very hoppy unlike their Hop mouth with pine, grapefruit and citrus hops mixed in with caramel malt and a touch of apricot. The alcohol is hidden well in this one and it finishes up with both moderate bitterness and pithiness. Nice job on this one!

Pours a golden hue. Smells piney, faint citrus in there. Taste is biting up front and sticks to your palate on the way down. Finishes smooth, nicely balanced hops. Wonderful 11th anniversary ale.

Pours a nice amber orange with thick off-white head, strong lacing. Aroma strong of floral hops, strong malt, slight citrus, and a bit of caramel. Flavor matches well with the addition of spice and a bit of an earthy taste that I wasn’t expecting. Finishes a bit dry with a good bitterness left in the aftertaste. Altogether, not bad, but not my favorite.

Poured an effervescent dark amber with a fizzy/frothy off-white head. Decent aroma of some pine and citrus hops with a touch of earthy bitterness. Flavor is quite good with notes of sweet toffee and strong pine hops... earthy bitterness with little metallic flavor. I didn’t know this was a DIPA, although that would certainly explain the dark color and richer body, though the hop profile did not strike me as being that prominent. Still, a good drink.

By just looking at the bottle, even smelling and drinking this hoppy ale, you would think it is just a very nice IPA. Pacific Northwestern hops, nice mouthfeel. Golden amber with large white head and leaving lace lines. Well malted and fairly balanced for a DIPA. Premiere Gourmet.

Draft in tulip glass at the brewpub. Pours a light amber. Small off white head. Excellent lacing. Strong pine aroma. Big hoppy flavor with lots of carmal. Very thick body. Nice mouthfeel. Really like this one

In short: A tasty classic American IIPA. Typical in style but above average in quality
How: From the bottle at Montreal Mondial de la Bière 2009
The look: Clear dark golden body topped by a small beige head
In long: Nice nose of citrusy and coniferous hops, indubitably American. A nice moderately toasted malt backbone with 2/3 caramel 1/3 honey sweetness. In mouth the hops have a bit of everything with not specific flavour coming on top, fruity, a little pine tree, a little grassy, a little floral, a little resinous. Long finish with a bitterness of medium intensity. No alcohol presence. This is a robust IIPA that is very tasty but not very refreshing. Very straightforward yet most breweries can’t make a solid IPA like this one, as if it was hop rocket science.