Avery The Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale

My birthday beer! Pours a cloudy apricot with a medium sized cream head. Sits very attractive in a pint glass. Aroma of flowery hops, lemon, and some tart grapefruit. Flavor is initially of lime, lemon, grapefruit and flowers. Very citrusy, which is delicious. Mid-palate brings about orange, marmalade, pine, and alcohol. Throughout the palate, there is just so much citrus that it tastes like someone squeezed a fresh lemon into an IPA! Surprisingly, the finish manages to not be that bitter, so I am figuring that there is a good amount of sweet malt in there for balance. In the finish, there is also ripe, valencia orange in there that is quite nice. Overall, this beer is great. But I have one complaint: I thought there might have been too much alcohol in the mid-palate to really be a top-notch brew. Just as I was starting to get into the citrus-heavy flavors, a bittering (not tart, which would have matched) alcohol kicked up and took the general flavor a different direction.

Pours crisp red-amber with a tall, light beige firm, chunky (like rootbeer float chunky) head that lasts forever and leaves lots of lacing. Aroma is about as good as it gets. The hops are beyond strong, but strike such a delicate balance. Nothing stands out as too pungent yet each note is its own. At the first instant of the sniff it could almost be mistaken for some sort of creamy citrus tart or pie. From there apricot cheese danish and some sweet soapy hops. After the dessert notes the aroma seperates a bit and you can pick up all kinds of hops, citrus and pine are pretty even leveled, more soapy hops than I have ever picked up in a beer. The malts are just as fantastic though may not stand out as much. Lots of dessert crust, toast and sweet caramel. Flavor is alot more malty than you would expect sweet breads, caramel, creme filled dessert pastries, and nilla wafers. Hops are mostly pine and soap, alot less citrus than the nose, bitter hops are right at the perfect level. There may be a little spice to the hops as well, but as I have spent so much time writing this my beer is getting too warm and the 10.54% is getting pretty pronounced. Body is pretty heavy and thick, but the hugh alcohol content keeps the syrup feel fairly low. Overall This is a great beer if you love IIPA’s probably not the best to cut your teeth on big beer though. I loved it personally.

This is a stand alone, beautiful example of how grains ought to be used in the world. Smells of sweet cream and hop oil with a big hop freshness banging your buds in the front, but finishing rich and creamy. I also get some sourdough from the flavor near the end which is pretty new to me. Mouthfeel is richly luscious and superb for this style and only gets better as the brew warms, which is the same for the taste and smell. Great beer. 2008 22oz.

Pours a cloudy/murky dark amber with a white frothy head. Sweet and rich aroma of hops, pine, citrus, malts and a touch of caramel. MAN I absolutely loved the flavor of this beer!!! You would expect the old upfront hops but it is more balanced with flavors of hops yes, but with other flavors that seem to match up to the hop presence. Other flavors of peach, citrus, barely, touch of raisin, and malts. This bad boy is a good example of a balence between hops and malts, almost 50 50. Nicely done.

Getting my notebook online. Bottle. Pours a golden amber. Loads of hops on the nose. Lots of floral flavors and some good citrus flavors. Pretty good but a bit disappointing.

Pours hazy amber brown with a small tan head. Aroma is hoppy and slightly alcoholic. Taste is big and malty with a very interesting citrus hop taste and finish. Very good.

bomber from grape & gourmet (re-rate batch 9, 2/09) poured into tulip pint. pours a cloudy amber/copper with some hints of red and a short, pure white head. aroma literally jumped out of the bottle. huge floral hops with hints of pineapple, pink grapefruit, limes, pine, brown sugar, and rock candy. flavor is quite unique in the world of IIPA’s. big, bitter, citrus hops dominate with big floral essence, and flavors of ginger, caramel malt, orange, and spice are present as well. there is a lovely tartness in mid swallow giving way to the sweeter malt flavors. the flavor gets better and more complex the deeper into the glass you get. very well balanced and smooth with a substantial mouthfeel and good warmth after the swallow with a dry, crisp, citrus finish. overall, a top notch IIPA. it also gets bonus points in my book for the 10.21% abv, being that my birthday is 10/21. cheers.

Pours from bomber a clear copper color forming a nice large white head of foam. Aroma of grapefruits, hops, cotton candy sugar and mango. Flavour of extreme smoothness, sweetness perfectly balanced with hop bitterness, both malty and tangy. Wow, Avery has really done it with this beer, I’ve seen it rated hundreds of times before trying it, now I know why its wonderful. Would love to try it on tap, perhaps in volumes, superb!!