Lagunitas Imperial Red

Bright copper with a slim tanned top of firm foam. Nice thinnly placed sheeting lace sticks across the glass with the stick of velcro. Mellowing nose of roasted orangified hops and bready malt. Kinda toasted with a burnt sugary wrapping of orange jelly filled doughnut. Rounded citric hops are the main aura overall. Nice warming taste fills in nicely over the palate with citrusy orangey stuff, semi dulled, more popping in the trailing ends. Kinda of a grainy, crystal and slight caramel malt fills the background with a fluffy/gritty sweetness with a lasting, unsticky pineyness and a perfect addition of grapefruit pith bitterness in the finish. Balanced well in body and form from front to back with a coarsing length of malts played with a nicely piney bittered grapefruit hoppiness that gradually gets better and bigger with a slight pine oily texture tossed with a small leafyness. Feel is pretty firm, semi-beefy, and warm within a smooth medium body, a solid texture, and a slippery crispness surrounded by a well balanced grapefruity citric hoppy bitterness. Finishes well with a lengthy boldness of semi toasted sweet malt offset by a lengthy, hoppy, slender pined, smooth grapefruity finish. A nice Red with a bolder rendition of flavor and length then the normal Red’s one would find. So the Imperial label is suiting to a certain degree. I liked the play in textures between the malts and the hops. A fun beer to drink and good to boot.

Bomber.

Pours hazy caramel red with a modest head and nice lacing. Classic Lagunitas aroma (though perhaps a bit nicer than average): big citrus aroma of blood oranges, plenty of brown sugar, some tropical fruit.

The thing is practically a barleywine in its flavor, which is impressive at 7.6; we get huge brown sugar coupled with powerful fruity malts that get matched with a serious c-hop blast on the finish; a hint of cheese; the malts stay strong enough all the way through to temper the even the long end with a sort of honey sweetness atop the bitter resins. The mouthfeel is full and rich, amply carbonated and almost oily but not overly so.

This is pretty darn good, certainly good enough to stand out about most of the Lagunitas brews.

(07.03.06) One pint, 6 oz brown bottle from Bierkraft, Brooklyn, NYC. 7.6% ABV. 40.63 IBU.1.072 OG. Poured clear red amber with small white head. Good carbonation. Intense hop aroma. Medium-to-full bodied ale that starts with moderate malt sweetness and pine resin hop flavor. Long finish with hoppy flavor fade. Light bitterness at end. More hop flavor than bitterness. I really enjoyed this excellent giant hoppy beer.

(660ml bottle) Sampled at the post-GCBF party hosted by Oakes, "Big Beer Sampling". Huge IPA nose. Bitter hops flavour melds with a brown sugar malt. Strong tart finish. Good but not "wow!"

Copper color. Smell of malt, hops, caramel, sugar and a hint of pine. Taste of malt, some caramel notes, hops and alcohol. Ok bitterness at the end.

Aroma is slightly sweet, caramel and molasses, but mainly very hoppy. Flavor is much like a IIPA. Incredibly bitter hops with a mildly sweet malt finish.

Bottled. Pours a clear, bright reddish amber with a creamy and cream-colored head with lots of lace. Lots of hops in the nose: citrus and herbal with some resiny notes backed up but a light malty sweetnes. Creamy full-ish body with light carbonation. The taste is sweet but hop-dominated, but the caramel and nutty notes come through in a bigger way. Cedar and grapefruit finish. This seems more like a DIPA than a a straight up American Strong, but either way it’a dandy brew.

Reddish-amber colour, bright. Big hoppy-chewy nose, light caramel. Moderate bitterness. Woody, toasty, hoppy character.