HeBrew Bittersweet Lennys R.I.P.A

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
San Francisco, California USA

If you have ever wondered what rye tastes like in a beer this thing will let you know. Pours very amber bronze color with thin head. Very strong aroma of rye, malt, small hops and alcohol. Flavor is bitter with strong alcohol warming. Great beer but this one is a sipper as you will be breathing fire after a while from the alcohol.

Pours darker than most IIPAs, deep mohogany with a full semi creamy froth. Aroma of fresh pine and malt. Full nectar w/ creamy residual effers. Flavors are extreme malt and citrus rind. Big hops all the way though balanced by a big malty backbone. Well balanced for a malt bomb and the alcohol is dangerously well hidden. This brew is exceptional in it’s genre, awsome. Theres a freshness about this brew. I can really tell the rye portion in this gives the hops a turbo charged boost sending it into overdrive to cruise at speeds defying your avere\age IIPA. The rye is slight but brings the brew to classic proportions. A fantastic specimen in my book. I highly recommend this brew and if your a hop-head, this will be a treat as you examine the properties and weigh them against others in it’s genre. Connoisseurs Choice! The best surprise since Houblon Chuoffe.

Mazzeltov! This poured crazy opaque amber with well sustained, thick tan suds. It smells overwhelmingly of hops, but also oranges and buttery toffee notes, alcohol and spicy rye. It’s got an incredibly malty backbone with dark caramel and toasty breadcrust bitterness, but the hops grab front stage. It’s got an incredibly full, complex hop character. At 10% abv take just a bit of time to savor the nice, slow burn. Afterall it’s a tribute brew. Delicious! This gets high marks all around.

This beer is freakin’ wicked! My first IIPA with rye. Looks absolutely nothing like I thought it would - a very dark burnt orange /brown with some red hints, small tan cap with tons of silty slow moving random lacing. I can smell it from over a foot away. Thick very thick! Tons of hops with a mild grapefruit being the most prominent but in no way overpowering. Interesting caramel and rye mix with some biscuit malts in the background. There is also sweet raisins and a slight spice too. Totally complex aroma. I’m gonna be trashed when I’m done this bottle. Taste is ...oh god! My cat just farted!!! Wow. I gotta start feeding him strawberries or something... Taste is quite strong with a caramel and spice split assaulting my mouth first. There’s tons of hops but they are suprisingly mixed well with the rye and malts. With all these hops and potent malts I detect no alcohol whatsoever. 10%!!! This is my new mass consumption beer. Not sure if I detect a hard spice or if that is the hops annihilating my taste buds. Mouthfeel is truly awsome. Full bodied with a great soft carbonated feel. It does venture near a syrupy feel but doesn’t quite make it. Oh oh. The alcohol just found my brain. Oh christ I just nose burped and now my eyes are on fire. The hops are slowly disintegrating my tongue. When this warms it gets really creamy. Finishes strong with a huge malt and hop aftertaste which is then pounded by an almost burning peppery hop attack that totally cleanses your mouth leaving a lingering heavy bitter feel. This is an incredible beer. Crushes the Rogue IIPA. But the West coast USA has struck again with another outlandish brew that pushes the limits of normality.

One of the biggest beers you’ll ever have the pleasure of drinking. There is so much flavour that your tastbuds won’t reall know where to begin! The bottle is defo one to share with another beerhound. don’t try this at home kids this is one for the adults!

I loved this beer. It looks great, smells great, tastes great. A big beer, but very well balanced. Makes my top 3 2IPAs with ease.

From Fairway,redhook. Absolutely the supreme IPA. Carmelised hops,with the strenght of the xtreme IPAs--arrogant bastards et al, but without the medicinal aftertastes. Just really nice drinkable stuff.

22 oz bomber poured a very deep dark copper with half inch off white head that remained nickel thick to the end. Some nice lacing to boot. The aroma was sort of sweet syrupy smelling of caramelized malts, a bit of date fruitiness but mostly pine hops. I also find a slight alcohol note too. The flavor starts with pine hop bitterness that has streaks of sweet citrus running through it. The hop flavor and bitterness ride all the way through the flavor profile right to the lingering aftertaste. The hops at the beginning seem a bit sweeter than the hop bitterness infused finish. The thick mouth feel is buoyed up by caramelized maltiness that lurks in the background. Full flavored brew that embraces you with its warm and brutal nature. It’s a comfy cushy pillow of tongue crushing hops. As each ounce is consumed my taste buds really don’t adjust to the flavor assault. I’m getting the sensory stretching hoppiness right to the 22nd ounce.