Goose Island Imperial IPA

Brewed by Goose Island Beer Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Chicago, Illinois USA

Pours a deep dark orangish amber color. Aromas of big hop action, sweet malts, and more hops. Flavor has some bready malty tastes with nice grapefruit and floral hop taste. This is one huge bitter hoppy bastard.

This beer greets the nostrils with a hearty fragrance consisting of hops, pine, and grapefruit. It is a cloudy maize colored solution with a thin white head. This beer has a nice density. It tingles the tongue with the hearty taste of hops infused with pine. This beer fades leaving a pine taste on the palate. As it continues to linger the taste rotates back to the bitterness of the hops.

Pours a hazy orange, thin white head, some lacing. Nose is piney and alcoholic. Flavor was lots of pine, grapefruit, and was acidic. Sweetness of overripe dark fruits, wasn’t working with the hops for me. Finish was of alcohol. I was disappointed.

I just don’t get much aroma on this one. I tried, and of course I did let the beer warm up. Appearance is a beautiful rich gold with a touch of haze and a crisp white head. Taste of bitter orange ad pine ... talk to me about Cascade anyone ... with a bit of grapefruit from the Simcoe ... but I’m not getting much of the aromatics. Lots of bitterness. I would be happier with a bit more malt for stronger balance. Really nice stuff, but not a Stone Ruination or a Hop Wallop or ...

12 oz. Bottle: I was really psyched to find a single bottle of this left in the store. Brought it home and was not disappointed. Pours an elegant clear golden orange with a decent white head which leaves some lacing. Strong hoppy aroma of CRAZY citrus. Oranges and lavender all over the place. The taste follows suit in the same citrus hop vein. Incredibly smooth for its alcohol content and certainly enjoyable. Loved it.

When I first picked up my glass and brought it to my nose, I was overwhelmed by a melange of scents, floral, piney, citrusy, and on and on. The first two pulls were like that. Unfortunately, after some of the notes succumbed to habituation, what was left smelled to me like nothing so much as penicillin, specifically the sticky, cold, pink liquid my mother used to pour into a spoon for me to take when I had ear infections. It’s hard for me to get past that association and focus on anything else. The flavor is on the sweet end of IIPAs. Nothing as syrupy as DFH 120-minute, but much sweeter than Hop Henge, Stone’s Runination or 3Fs Dreadnaught. Flavor notes of lacquer and citrus. Not much bitterness here. Can definitely feel the alcohol. If I don’t breathe in while taking a sip, I can even swallow without feeling slightly nauseated. Probably if my neural pathways didn’t go right to penicillan, I’d even like this beer.

Light amber color, pretty clear, with just a touch of hazyness. Head is rather big, fluffy, and pure white. Aroma is super hoppy, citrusy, spicey, slightly herbal, hints of honey and caramel. Flavor is Sharp, very hoppy, almost like sucking on a hop cone, spicey, vaguely metallic. Finish is somewhat bitter with a mildly sweet malty character. A very nice brew. If ever I met a beer with too much hop flavor, this would be it. I almost feel like it needs a bit more bitterness to keep with the onslaught of hop flavor. Nevertheless, I like it.

Thanks to Degarth for this one....Pours out a nice orange color with a small lacing head. Huge floral hops on the aroma. Flavor is very nice and smooth for a beer of this gravity. Flavor is nice and hoppy with a slight sweetness to the end that sticks to your lips, but the dominant taste is dry floral and citrus hops, maybe a note or two of pine here or there. Pretty solid beer.