Elysian The Immortal IPA

Poured from a bomber. Pours a slightly hazy golden orange with an average foamy off white head that laced and sustained. Aroma was of lighter citrus (orange), caramel. Nice balanced aroma but a little light. Flavor of grapefruit, bitter hops, some malty sweetness to balance.

Draught Small white rim; clear orange-amber beer. Slightly woody & smokey caramel malt, enlightened by good USA hops. Good hoppy flavours, more IPA than pale ale, I’d say, even when there’s sweetess detectable underneath. Lipsmacking sweet-hoppy residy makes up the MF, rather well bodied. One of Elysian’s classics - and rightly so.

On tap Coopers IPA fest ’06 in Seattle. This one pours a hazy amber yellow , lighter-colored than most IPAs, with a modest head.

The aroma brings lots of tea leaf and floral hops. The flavor explodes with floral dry-hoppedness and hints of whisky. This is intensely hoppy, but it is not the sort strong oil citrus you often get in a c-hop PacNW IPA, and the intensity in the finish is relatively shortlived. The beer falls short in that there’s no malt presence to back up all of that delicious hop flavor. The palate is a bit watery on the front, though it fills out nicely through the sip.

All in all, this is an appealing but ultimately flawed beer. It’s good, but could be better. That big dryhop flavor sure is nice, though....
Earlier Rating: 11/1/2005 Total Score: 3.6
Bomber 8/29/06 I need to lower my expectations when I come to this one. At $2.50 a bomber it’s a good deal on a perfectly nice beer, but I’m always disappointed when I compare my current experience to the 4.0 that I gave it when I was young and impressionable (i.e., last year). It’s a nice enough IPA, but really nothing better. So far as the hops go, it’s relatively mild for the PacNW, pine and orange , strong on the caramel malt though not massively sweet.

Draft 2/6/06: On tap at Atlas in Seattle. Pours a soft orange with a reasonable head. The aroma is relatively subdued; some piney hops and hint of sugary malt, but that’s about it. The flavor is mouth-puckering pine resin hops, with substantial backing from sweet brown-sugar malts, though the beer itself is not a sweet IPA in the least. The finish is dry, bits of citrus mixed in with the same full-bodied but not overwhelming piney bitterness. Mouthfeel is somewhat oily, but not unpleasantly so; unfortunately, this glass was badly overcarbonated, to the point of being prickly.

Original rating 11/1/05: From the bottle. Pours a golden amber with an ample foamy head. A well-crafted --- even if somewhat straightforward --- Pacific Northwest IPA. The aroma is pine and grapefruit and orange peel; the mouthfeel and flavor are not at all harsh, with a big cascade hop taste without being overwhelming in the least. There’s some sweetness here, as in honey, not as in syrup. The finish is gentle compared to some of the more brash IPAs, but satisfying. Definitely worth repeating. 7/4/8/4/17

Bottle. Deep golden orange in color with a nice white head. Hoppy and malty aroma. Citrusy grapefruit notes. Clean mouthfeel. Malty and hoppy flavor. Smooth. Finish is hoppy with a nice bitterness. Easy drinking beer. Very nice.

Draught at the brewpub. Clear deep golden. Aroma of mango and grapefruit. Dry with clean but bold mouthfeel. There are juicy hops, but it ends with ashy bitterness. A good, solid beer, but nothing that stands out amongst the IPAs in the PNW:

Golden colour. Big hoppy aroma, some cascade, amarillo with fresh grassy resiny flavour as well. Aroma of grapefruit, grass/hay. Sweet malts, but low complexity. Clean yeast, resiny bitterness. Lingering bitterness.
Earlier Rating: 9/11/2005 Total Score: 3.4
Tap at GCBF. Very yeasty with large chunks suspended in it. Light brown/amber colour. Creamy tan head. Nice strong fresh resiny hop aroma. Flavour is of woodsy fresh hops, resin, pine, cedar, light caramel, a bit of toffee. Light yeastiness and a touch of fruit. I suspect this would be better without all the yeasty notes. Lighter bitterness than the aroma suggests.

Besmirched goldenrod. Small, yellow dusted whitish top of fair foam. Exquisite lacing in patchy sheeting. Clean, soft, aroma of orangey/grapefruit citric spruce pine needles. Rounded hoppy taste with a nice balanced front and middle. Malts keep a nice sweet side to its overall. A toasted surge gains control therein and sticks for the duration of the entire ride while a prevalent hop flavor provides some significant piney flavors. Finish is a spectacular blaze of firey hop qualities with leafy/pulpy texture, a surging, controlled bitterness and drying bite, with a complex array of pinewood bark, needles, and oils mixing with glazes of citrusy impressions adding nudges at the corners of the palate with orange, grapefruit, peach, pineapple, and lemon. Beautiful finish with a very nicely handled balance and bitterness that doesn’t quite blow away all factors of taste and palate. Feel is well rounded, smoothly accurate and comforting for an IPA and its overall drinkability with a slippery medium body and finely placed, fairly easy going bitterness. As it warms this becomes one hell of a beer. It really gains a respectful amount of body, texture, hop action, and overall flavor ride. A gem of a brew from the folks at Elysian.

Immense and yummy. I like everything I have tried from these guys so far. The head on this beer was monstrous, and so was the aroma, not that the aroma was that great, a bit of funkiness, almost like dirty dishwater, and the flavor is kind of earthy and musky, but it is delicious,