Church-Key Grains of Wrath Double IPA

Brewed by Church-Key Brewing
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Pethericks Corners, Canada

Draught at Volo. Their new house beer. Amber pour with good head retension. Aroma was a bit lacking, but the flavour was all there. Grapefruit, pine needles and sweet malt pick up the flavour. Long bitter finish. It needs a bit of tweaking, but I’m sure it will be there soon.

[771-20071020] Cask @ Volo Cask Days 2007 (Toronto, ON). Grainy floral tea corn aroma with woody resin hops. Hazy, brown orange body with a small creamy off-white head. Grainy floral wood flavour has a slight tang and a hoppy bitter finish. Very smooth medium body. Nice.

Cask. Murky orange body with a creamy small head. The aroma is orangey and bready with some light sugars and grain. Quite resiny and very bitter grapefruit notes. Certainly hop forward which was quite a nice surprise at the Volo Cask Days.

Cask at ’Volo Cask Days ’07’. Pours a murky orange-amber with a spare diminishing off-white head. Mild aroma of citrus hops and sweet malt. Flavour: Lots of hops but they’re mostly in the finish, needs more hops in the initial flavour. Big bitter finish. Medium bodied. pretty good, with some tweaking this could be very good.

Deep cloudy amber in colour, lingering beige coloured head, good lacing. The aroma is moderatly hopped, some pine and grapefruit, oranges and grains. The flavour is of hops (lots of citrus), soapy, some malt but not enough to balance this out. Bitter mouthfeel, medium body, moderate carbonation. Finishes lingering but a bit thin, continues bitter. Too much hops for this to be balanced but I commend Church Key for trying this little made style in Ontario.

Cask at <a href=http://www.ratebeer.com/Places/ShowPlace.asp? target=blank>Volo in Toronto, Ontario on October 20, 2007.

Draught at Volo. This was amber with a small white head and slight rings of lace on the glass. The aroma is light and faint with some citrus, pine and subtle caramel. The flavour has a more restrained hop bitterness with more citrus, grapefruit and pine in the hops with some caramel.

In short: A different take on the IIPA. Crisp and sweet with low profile spicy hops. Good beer but don’t expect an American style IIPA.
How: Bottle, fresh. Surprise extra from Tupalev, thanks a lot Jeff.
The look: Clear red-copper with a short lived off-white head
In long: Very sweet malts, crisp and sugary. Hops are a bit low profile considering the malt sweetness. Something unusual about the hopping. Spicy hops with a short bitter biter bite that quickly disappears. Some red apple skin. Finish has a surprising dry/tart/acidic character. An overall impression of a red spicy fruit flavoured hard candy. This is very different than the what we are used from American IIPA. But this is a Canadian IIPA eh. And Canadian IIPA eh, they are not the same as American IIPA eh.

Pours a nice rich copper color with a white head. Aroma is caramel, grainy, and some citrus hops. Flavor is caramel, grain, toast, and a slightly citrus hop finish.