Deschutes Hop Henge Imperial IPA

On tap at Horse Brass. Pours a bright orangey with a thinner offwhite head. The nose is bright with sharp citrusy hops, orange as well. Lightly sweet, without any darker or even caramelly malt character. Clean and lovely. Lower in carbonation. A bit fuller than watery, drinkable. Flavors bright and sharp. Really clean hop bite, largely citrus. The sweetness is very light, the pale malt flavor is strong. The finish is clean. A bit creamy maybe. Reminds me of Moylander. Better than I think the average score suggests!

22 oz bomber from stoutlover72, thanks Garret. Poured a hazy orange/amber with a small bubbly off white head. Rather sweet aroma for an IIPA with notes of fresh hops, caramel and rum. Medium bodied with average carbonation and bitter finish. Flavor of bread, caramel and toffee.....wheres the citrus and pine from the hops?? Although this beer is drinkable I was far from impressed.

22 oz bottle, from John’s Marketplace in Portland. Medium dark ruddy amber color with a generous, creamy, light beige head that leaves spotty lace. Earthy and somewhat fruity malts, hints of citrus, but less than expected for a west coast DIPA, along with a distinct dusty character with alcohol more evident as it warms. More of the earthy malt base in the flavor, sweet in a toasty biscuity way, with a huge grapefruit and citrus hop presence, along with alcohol notes. Medium to full body and little carbonation.

"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, there lived a strange race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were, or what they were doing... but their legacy remains... hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge..." Spinal Tap. Surely the finest band ever to pull on spandex pants and lose a drummer to a bizarre gardening accident. Deschutes may not have had Tap in mind when they named this imperial IPA, but the standing stones on the label are about the size of those on Tap’s stage set. Hop Henge was a cherry-tinted brown colour with a loose cover of suds. The nose-prickling aroma was floral - violets, perhaps - with strong pine needles and caramel. Soft carbonation and quite thin in the limbs. Chocolate orange, intense lime flavours, Seville marmalade and a coarse, herbal finish. Very sweet and under-attenuated - presumably to balance the heavy alpha acids. Strong crystal malt toffee notes. Intensely bitter mouthwash-like finish. For mine, this was too sweet to rank amongst the better IIPAs. (Bottle courtesy of Linc at Ecze’s Sydney RB 2007 gathering. Thanks to both.)

Bottle. Orange-red pour with a white head. Aroma of caramel musty malt, floral/grassy hops, light fruits and yeast. Flavors of sweet candied malt and earthy floral hops. Medium body, bittersweet with a sweet/bitter/dry finish.

Dark amber with a thin white head. Aroma is more sweet than hoppy. Some fruit punch or something. This is a thick and syrupy beer man. Wow! Barley wine like sweetness with some grapefruit and pine. Pretty damn bitter really with some caramel malt backbone. Not alot of lingering dryness.

TRADE. Thanxz! To me, this p[oured a cloudy orange. Samll non descript head. Nosewas more malt than hop? Now the taste was a sour grapefruit. Pine in the palate as well. There was an underlying ???? about thgis, but the bottle said 8.+% The after taste/linger is HOPPY man, and , with the cool weather, It is a bit hot/hoppy for me. thanx for the trade. I loved this, and I am not a hop man.!

She’s a big’n. Drinks easy though. Mildly sweet and uber hoppy. Usual big malt middle from these guys. It’s like a signature with their beers. Love it.