HeBrew Bittersweet Lennys R.I.P.A

Dark orange-brown color with thin head. Piney hop aroma. Flavor is a sweet maltiness with a bitterness that lingers through the finish. Not as aggressive as other DIPAs, but enjoyable throughout, and better looking than most.

A dark amber beer with a huge lazing light brown head. The aroma is sweet and very fruity and hoppy, Cascade like with notes of grass and grapefruit. The flavor is very sweet with a good caramel background and a nice hoppy topping. Nice one.

Poured the typical orange color for this style. Beautiful lacing. Aroma was of alcohol and malts. Flavor was hot lots of bit, my guess from the alcohol malts did tone it down a bit but really not enough.

The chosen beer in rememberance of the Jewish stars (#1). We’ll see. Pours a clear dark red with a thin smooth white head. I seem to notice more caramel and fruit notes than heavy hops, which I wouldn’t expect. Kind of barleywinish in that respect. A good aroma nonetheless. Interesting flavor, I do get the rye malts when tasting Lenny; in fact the caramel sweetness just kind of ends and then all of a sudden, you get a somewhat bitter finish. Very interesting palate and unusual to say the least. Overall a better than average beer, although more malty than most in this style, so it seems that it is characterized incorrectly.

Deep mahogany-amber with golden highlights and a thick tan head. Aroma of caramel malt sweetness, alcohol, some fruitiness, and grain. Mainly alcohol in the flavor with some nutty grain flavors and fruity sweetness. Bitter top notes with dense malt and alcohol underpinnings.

Deep auburn, average head pile and retention. Aroma of wet wood, cherry and tobacco. Sharp alcohol hotness asserts itself in aroma as well. Quite sweet, with a creamy chocolate malt flavor and a dosing of nutmeg. Some light fruitiness as well as suggestions of fresh ginger. Formidable, insinuating bitterness at the close, ensconced in some raw earth notes. Reminds me very much of eggnog. A weird, but quite cool beer.

Poured a copper amber-orange color with a nice off-white head, solid lacing. The aroma was resinous, rich malty, some alcohol. The flavor was sharply bitter, pretty good job of getting there in a dIPA with the extra malt, some caramel, some citrus rinds. Mouthfeel was moderate for the style, clean bitter finish.

Beer #3 at Grant’s Blind IIPA tasting. Single-blind tasting for me. Musty, funky, earthy hop aroma that is kind of woodsy. Very weak citric hoppiness in there as well. Disappointing, funky aroma for an IIPA. Transparent dark amber color with a frothy off-yellowish head. Beautiful appearance. Sweet, spicy, caramelly, nutmeg like flavors to start. Nice body with a pleasant wet, hoppy bitterness present later in the finish. Very flavorful, nice doby. Definitely unique. I wish the aroma was better than it was. Not as overly bitter as the other samples.