Avery The Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale

Brewed by Avery Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Boulder, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Bottle. Pours golden with a moderate head. Aroma is heavily hopped. In the mouth, the hops are well balanced to slightly sweet.

A slightly hazy dark orange-red beer with a huge orange head. The aroma is sweet and very hoppy giving it citrusy notes of lime, grapefruit, and oranges. The flavor is powerful with notes of caramel, hops, grapefruit, and lime, the alcohol lingers in the background. The end is very bitter - no wonder at 112 IBU’s.

(Bottle 65 cl) Vintage 2005. Clear amber colour. Hoppy, caramelish notes. Loads of sweet caramel malt, loads of aroma hops but somehow I had expected more of this. Just glacing a sweet caramel base with a ton of hops doesn’t necessarily make a great Double IPA. I want some more complexity here. Will this grow with age or just grow tired? 120805

22 fl oz bottle@Ølbaren, thanks to Ungstrup for sharing. Pours hazy orange with a lacing head. Thick dried fruity and citrus fruity aroma. Dry raisin flavour. Heavy malty caramel flavour. Slight spiced. Goes quite dry in the bitterfinish with a warming alcohol.

Bottled. Dark golden colour, beige small head. Sweet fruity aroma with weak alcoholic hints. Sweetish alcohol and fruits in flavour. Sticky palate. Hoppy flowery aftertaste.

Bottled. Hazy orange/amber. Strong aroma of grapefruit and alcohol. Sweet and sugary, boldly malty. Full bodied with clean mouthfeel. There’s lots of pine needles, resin and syrup. The finish is resiny and really bitter. I am really a fan of the older products from Avery, but the new extreme ones seem always to be raw and primitive in mouthfeel with excessive alcohol and syrup. They try to hide these shortcomings with ridiculous amount of hops. Despite this, I don’t think this is a bad beer, but I don’t like they way this great brewery is taking.

Bottled at RBESG 2005. Clear orange coloured with a small off white head. Sweet aroma of caramel, hops and pine needles. Sweet flavour of caramel, hops and pine needles. Long hoppy finish. Nice.

Bottle at KØ07. Very nice strong and spicy hop aroma. Clear dark amber colour. Very flavourful, strong hoppiness, sweet, grassy and very teaish. Notes of bonbon/caramel. The alcohol is also quite noticeable.

UPDATED: NOV 7, 2009
Name: Maharaja
Date: June 02, 2005
Mode: Bottle
Source: Tasting
Appearance: dark amber, scant head
Aroma: sweet malty aroma with a touch of piney character
Flavor: big sweet malt flavor with a tongue scraping bitterness, no mid hop flavor

Name: Maharaja
Date: April 19, 2006
Mode: bottle
Appearance: clear copper, big frothy dirty cream head, drippy lace
Aroma: sweet peppery grapefruit aroma
Body: creamy body
Flavor: sweet carmel malt flavor, touch of sweet pine, long bitter finish, bitterness continues to grow

Name: Maharaja
Date: April 15, 2007
Mode: draft
Source: summits
big sweet grapefruit aroma and flavor, very special but not worth a f*cking $10 per 8oz no matter how good it is, f*ckin summits, but still great creamy citrus IPA, f*ckin Summits

Name: Maharaja
Date: April 15, 2008
Mode: draft
Source: brick store
such a wonderful creamy sweet grapefruit beer and so much better at $6/pint,

Name: Maharaja
Date: May 18, 2008
Mode: draft
Source: charlie mopps
picking up a lot of tangerine as well, another place serving a full pint and $8 here but sadly in a frozen glass,

Name: Maharaja
Date: August 27, 2008
Mode: bottle
Source: Green’s
picking up some catty simcoe in this $8 bottle from Green’s,

Name: Maharaja
Date: October 10, 2009
Mode: draft
Source: brick store
very peppery with a bit of fusel alcohols, does not stand up the the other IPAs in the IPA fest

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 8/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 16/20
Rating: 4/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **4

Amber color; small head. Very nice hop aroma, fruity and a bit resiny, with caramel. Full body, a bit oily; good malt flavor, toffee; high bitterness of course; salty, with a hint of sweet liquorice and macadamia nuts. Excellent, but I have the impression that it’s not fresh enough.