5 AROMA 10/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 20/20
I wish I could find more of this beer. I really do think it actually put years back onto my life! I can still taste it, yeah. Thanks Fish Tale.
4.7 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 19/20
Sweet, fruity, hoppy aroma that is reminiscent of sweaty testicles. Deep bright red body with yellow tangential hues. Lots of particles; murky. Great lace. Smoky and chalky initial mouthfeel. Almost tastes smoked, which likely comes from the oak barrel aging. The substantial 10% ABV is subdued. Wonderful. Very rich and complex. This is an exceptional elixir. Thanks Slikwily for hooking me up with this winner.
4.7 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 19/20
Big thanks to footbalm for this one. Pours deep ruby/copper with off-white head. The alcohol is present in the aroma and taste. The aroma is big hops, malty, black pepper, fruit (honeydew, grapefruit, berries). The taste is extremely hoppy and extremely fruity/berryish with citrus fruits and watermelon, honetdew, and strawberry. Smooth, hoppy palate. A marvelous beer, that only loses a few points due to some alcohol presence and astringency at the finish. I wanted to give this a 5.0, but it didn’t match up with Dreadnaught and Devil Dancer. Still, one of the best Impy IPAs I’ve had, and you should seek this out with extreme prejudice!
4.7 AROMA 10/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 20/20
How to rank this one on "Palate"?! It’s a bruiser, thickset with two hands full of hop varieties and in abundance. Hop lover’s dream...it runs the gamut, hop hater’s worst horror story (like worse than Leviathan). As far as its look/color: deep brown-tinged-with-sienna subaquiousness...ajacently opaque hues. It’s a bomb of flavor. Unfathomable for the weak-hearted (or one literally having a heart condition)! 100 IBU! 100% radical!
4.6 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 20/20
UPDATED: OCT 20, 2006 Pours deep amber red w/ a medium sized creamy froth. Aroma is sweet grapefruit, malted caramel, and limerind. Full nectar w/ creamy residual effers. Flavors are excessive with malted caramel and the citrus rind climbs its way thru the crowd to front stage. Slight cherry esence dressed in leather. The hops really balance this thing out although this is a malt dominated brew. The finish has a shy bitterness that eventualy steals the show. Overall: The use of 10 types of hops really does show adding to the complexities.
4.6 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 18/20
My brother-in-law and I matched this against Rogues Imperial IPA. Both are very good, this was the better. This has an explosion of complex hop character, with the expected grapefruit and pine resin aromas dominating. But there is a rich and chewy malt component that the Rogue brew lacks. The brewer achieves an exceptional balance with a generous amount of ingredients in my opinion. Sweet butter toffee, green wood (almost parsley-like), grapefruit, sweet citrus, and a piney bitterness that stays long in the mouth. The danger lies in the 10% alcohol that is nearly undetectable in this cavalcade of flavours! Worth seeking out.
4.5 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 19/20
A very curious aroma. Candyish, slightly bubblegummy, floral and perfumy. Dark cloudy amber to brown color. Thin tight head. A very well balanced presentation- spicy and herbal hops are strongly present but a slickly sweet candyish body slides smoothly over the palate. Well-balanced. Alcoholic strength is apparent in the finish but not overly so. A lingering bitterness is unmistakeable, but the 100 IBUs are well balanced by the nicely sweet and caramelized malts. Well crafted strong ale.
4.5 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 18/20
RBSG 2004: Orange, red, ruby ith a small white head. Very intense pine, spruce, resin aroma with a burnt edge to it. Starts and ends heavily bitter, thick syrupy full body. This beer is like getting smacked in the head. Wow.
4.5 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 19/20
Pours a dark murky rust red color. Small little white head floating around. ARoma of strong hops. Grapes, and vanilla. Flavor is very strong, hops blended together, whiskey, cherries. Very complex, amazingingly balanced. Wow, what a wonderful beer! Thanks to HerftyDrF for sending me this!
4.5 AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 18/20
UPDATED: JUL 21, 2006 Thanks Chuck! The aroma is VERY hopped with a good amount of tannins. Grass, citrus, caramel, spice, Amarillo hops. Awesome looking red body with a non-existent head. The flavor is very malty and has a strawberry hop characteristic to it. There’s also a ton of oakiness muskmellon with black pepper flavor. The palate has a dry chalkiness to it. Tried on 6/6/2005. 9, 3, 9, 3, 16 = 4.0
I opened a cellared bottle on 7/21/2006 (notched as spawned on Jan.). The beer poured to a nice red body with a lasting medium off-white rocky head. Nice lacing. The aroma is malty and deep with a lot of unique hop aromas, wood, tannins, floral, pine. The flavor is nicely piney, malty, peppery, woodsy floral hops. Light melon. Pretty certain this is the original batch I had. I was unaware that this was bottled into 22 oz’ers... Either way, the palate is spot on with a very rich creamy feel. Very nice. Quite delectable. Either this beer has gotten better, or I’ve gotten crazier.
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