Goose Island Imperial IPA

Thanks to dickinsonbeer for this... Appears a hazy golden orange with lively carbonation pumping up wickedly to the 1 finger, creamy, off white head. Solid rings of tubed lacing is stuck around the glass. Smell is orange citrus, pine, sweet biscuits, vanilla cream, and caramel. Taste is of the same aromas. Nice mix of sweets & bitters with a piney hop blast mixed with sugar. Mouthfeel is sugary, full bodied, creamy, and bitterly balanced. This is a nice drinking DIPA but the abv is noticable. Very tasty though.

Very cloudy orange, with a good sized white head. Really appealing woodsy, spicy aroma, with just a toucj of toffee and molasses. Very flavorful - spicy and citrus - grapefruit, of course, but also lemon? mango? something like that. Big woody flavors, too, mostly pine. Subtle toffee-ish malt flavors thoughout. , maybe a touch of honey in the finish. Thanks to tronraner for this one!

From a twist cap 12 oz. long neck brown bottle with a nice blurb on the front label and a bottled on date, 11/03/05, on the back label. Made a good appearance, poured a cloudy orange with a foamy white head that settled into a thin bubbly lacing, small amount of sticking, good even carbonation. Goose Island wasn’t lying, a big hoppy nose, grapefruit, the juice, zest and rind, spicy, dry earthy leafy and a light piney, the malts are completely in the background. A crisp, dry hop textured and creamy smooth medium bodied mouth feel, very good and dangerous DIPA drinkability. Big hoppy taste, the entire grapefruit once again, juice, rind and zest, spicy and piney, a beaten into submission caramel maltiness that rises up in the middle only to have it’s ass kicked again, the alcohol warmth is there, but is largely flavorless and a dry leafy hop finish with a soft dry bitterness lingering in the palate. The bitterness overall is softly numbing on the tongue, gently rolling in the palate, well balanced. An excellent DIPA from Goose Island, tasty, balanced and just too easily quaffable.

"Pour an amber color with okay head lacing was weak at best. Aroma was strong grapefruit. Flavor was the same with some other citrus and floral coming out. Had the pine hops later in the beer. Mouthfeel was moderate to a little dry. "

Cloudy orange beer with a moderate sized head, good lacing. Aroma is all the usual goodness. Grapefruit, citrus, other fruits, pine, caramel, light alcohol. Bitter salty mouthfeel with minor alcohol burn. Good, but $5/bottle? I’ll take a Yulesmith now.

12 oz bottle courtesy of Wallybrau. This poured a dark amber color with a medium off-white head. Nice hoppy aroma with plenty of citrus. Flavor is pretty well balanced. The bitterness of the hops are complimented by a good malt backbone with some caramel notes. Great beer, but I would place this some where in the middle if I were to rank IIPA’s.

Clear amber that starts off with a bit of chill haze. The sizeable head has enough lasting power to count. The aroma is stingingly hoppy. The piney/sprucey hops have a bit of orange zest in the background and if you sniff too hard, the eyes start to water. The flavor doesn’t disappoint. With a moderate cracker malt backed up by plenty of hop flavor and bitterness.

Bottled 110305. Pours a somewhat pale amber color with some haze. Head was decent lacing somewhat lacking for the style, which normally has more to display. The aroma was really really strong grapefruits, no malts coming through. The flavor was of strong grapefruits, bitter grapefruit rinds, some floral aspects before it warmed, and more pine as it warmed. Malts and alcohol depth were lacking, I was in want of some more dIPA-ness after this one. Mouthfeel was moderate. Great flavor, more depth, please.