Lagunitas Maximus

Bomber. Pours clear light amber with a smallish white head. Aroma is lots of citrus hops, malts with light-fruit and honey character, and some wood. Flavor is a nice mix of citrus hops, pine, somewhat sweet and fruity malts, and a grapefruit finish. That’s all quite good as far as it goes-- an IIPA with a lot of nice mix of hop and malt character with citrus fruitiness. But then it has a weird aspirin-pill medicinal-bitterness aftertaste a few seconds later, which is weird and not that pleasant. Still, not bad on the whole, and cheap.

Bottle. Pours a clear, amber color with a large, frothy white head. Lacing is strong. Aromas of hops, spruce, grapefruit, and some roasted malts. Nice start on the palate with a smooth initial feel followed by a nice bitter finish. Creamy throughout which is a surprise for an IPA. Flavors of hops, hay, then a nice hoppy finish. Great beer.

Bottle, after a couple months in a fridge. Pours light and rich amber with a medium and lasting white head. Aroma of citrusy hops, some malt. Flavors are the same. I’d had a bottle before that was fresher which had a strong hop presence, but after a couple months of rest the hops had settled and a nice maltiness set in, with no sign of stale hops or anything else undesirable. Very tasty.

Bottle. Pours amber with big white head. Aroma is surprisingly sweet, with citrus and bread notes. Flavor is hoppy and citrusy, but very sweet. Mouthfeel is a little light and dry.

Bottle. Poured a beautiful deep amber with a tiny head. Aroma of oranges. Disappointingly dry and bitter flavor compared to favored IPAs such as Stoudts and Dogfish Head, with accents of oranges and grapefruit. Tangy but dry mouthfeel which finished very bitter. Better than many, not as good as many others.

Bottle pours an orange amber with a big, big head. The aroma is of sweet malt and a citrus and bread like. The flavor is quite hop forward but very sweet, with some orange like sweetness and peal to attempt to balance. The palate is very much there. There is somewhat of an abrasive aspirin like bitterness that I can’t quite overlook. This is a bit of a mess...

Much better beer than their traditional IPA... Aroma of hops and a flavor with a nice balance of bitterness and sweetness, however, the beer does well in highlighting the hoppy flavor much more subtlely than the Hop Stoopid, their more ostentatious IPA... Nice tasting IPA

22oz bottle. Copper amber pour with a big off-white head. Sweet grainy aroma with bread and hops. Sweet malt flavor up front with a bready hop finish. Either this was an old bottle, or it’s just not very good. The sweetness way overpowered the hops.