East End Bigger Hop

Brewed by East End Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA

1 liter swingtop from riversideak. Hazy golden with nice fluffy white head. Nose is sweet estery Belgian aroma with some spice but not much hop. Sweet, spicey, with corriander...some ester yeastiness, some white pepper. This to me is a cross between a Belgian ipa and a saison. Nice stuff.

Orange, sweet/spicy notes, soft dust. This smells like a belgian somewhat. Fruity, spicy, and peppery bitterness. Somewhat floral bitterness lingers on the palate. Really interesting mix of belgian/saison/ipa. Orange amber pour with really nice head retention.

1L swingtop. opaque dark orange with loose white head and webby lace. oranges, spices, and grapefruit on the nose. creamy medium body with soft but active carb. tangy grapefruit, coriander, and a bit of white pepper on the mid palate. long dry finish.

Poured from a huge flip top bottle. Pours an orange color with a little white head to it. Has a yeasty citrus taste to it. Has a big citrus taste but I’m not picking up much hops like a DIPA should have. Little disappointed.

Big huge 1L bottle. Pours a dingy tannish color that I don’t think I’ve seen before. Just a little whisp of a head and aromas that are OK, but kinda bland. A bit of apple juice sweetness, a little grass and light spice and just a hint of citrus and pine, but I’m wondering just what this IIPA has in store at this point. Flavor is much better... lots of citrus and pine hops dominate the aftertaste and flush the apple sweet malt flavors off the palate. There’s a little bit of an astringent alcohol presence and a little yeasty spice in there too. Mouthfeel is kind of silky finish is pretty bitter with just a hint of lingering apples.

Bottle thanks to boamr. Pours out a clear, nice copper color with a slightly lacing off white head. Aroma is of citrus and floral hops, and a light fruity malty note. Taste is of citrus and floral hops, some light sweet malty notes and also a little bit of fruit. For a double IPA I would have liked to see much more of a hop profile.

Big swingtop from Capone’s, Norristown. Never had a problem with the East End swingtops previously but I was a bit bummed to open this one with not a hint of hiss. Could there be no carbonation in this style that so clearly depends on it? Alas, yes. Still a lustrous pour, deep orange and faintly murky. And I confess that I actually shook the bottle a bit to try to get things going. Nope. Pungent aroma, quite sharply boozy with some grassy aggression to boot. Mouthfeel was, not surprisingly, a bit of a let-down. Flavor reveals some citrus and floral elements, but these are quickly overwhelmed by the harsher qualities. Strangely, despite an apparent problem with the bottle I purchased, it’s still not a terrible beer. But would love to try a more proper bottle at some point.

Big bottle that I proudly helped finish provided by boamr. Poured a slightly thin copper/amber with a large foamy white head. The aroma on this one was just way way to fruity and not even in a classic hoppy citrus fruit way but more of a sweet almost Belgian yeasty fruit way...notes of apricott, peach, mango and bubblegum. Flavor similar to the aroma with far to much fruitiness and not enough bitternress, especially for a DIPA. Drinkeable on every level but boy was I underwhelmed since this was called "Bigger Hop".