Lagunitas Maximus

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Petaluma, California USA

Bottle. Quite possibly one of the best Imperial IPA’s I’ve ever had. Wonderfull aroma and flavor of hops. Lots of malt and more hops. I keep stirring the glass to get the aroma, instead of drinking it.

This beer pours a copper color with a thick one finger gold head. A delicious nose of sweet fruit, floral notes, and caramel. Flavor offers a quite complex hop profile. Some nice spice notes, as well. Caramel is very much in the background. This beer bumps up against the Barleywine category.

This is the best IPA I have yet to have! The aroma is just sweet, tantalizing, goodness that embodies all the an IPA should offer, The hop presence is strong, but not too strong, and it hits the pallate like a gentle rolling cascade of goodness. I could swim in this beer.

Clear amber pour, medium white head that leaves abundant lace. Floral, slightly citric hops very present in the nose, also some sweet, honeyed malt elements. Aroma does rapidly attenuate after a couple sniffs. Flavor hops grapefruit-hops aromatic and bitterness very well balanced with lightly caramelized malts. Very smooth, pleasant drinking. Understated for the style but I like it. Only flaw is that it the bitters turn a bit metallic on the linger.

05-JUN-2009. Bottle @home. It runs out of the bottle on opening. Nice orangy look with off-white head. Hops are very present on the nose, especially when it is still very cold. When it warms up the malt becomes more noticable, and it also changes somewhat from an IPA to something more barley wine like. Actually it reminds me a lot of the Olde Gnarley Wine, just not quite as sweet and strong. Very delicious beer. Maybe a bit to sweet for an IPA, but I like that. Not overly bitter, just very creamy and pleasant.

12 ounce bottle from local liquor shop. This was marked down to $1.39 and still says "Limited Release" -- it might be old?? Pours a golden orange with thin white head. Hoppy aroma includes pineapple and a fair amount of booze. Flavor has some citrusy/pineapple-type hops. It’s bitter, but the booze taste dominates. Yeah, this does not taste as fresh as I would expect. It’s probably just old -- will try to re-rate with a fresh bottle.

12 oz bottle via Hagen. Pours a near clear copper with a massive beige head that lingers. Nose is strong citrus hops..grapefruit, pine and orange. Taste starts and ends sweet actually, with lingering resiny pineapple/pine syrup in the aftertaste. In between there is lots of orange, tangerine and grapefruit. Body is full. Carbonation is light/medium. I would prefer less malt and more hops, as this is more barleywine tasting than IIPA tasting...

650ml bottle. As one of the first double IPA’s I’ve tried, it was good, but the malt covered up much of the hoppiness. While the bottle stated 70+ IBU it felt more like it was in the 50’s because of the large amount of malt in the beer. I feel like a double IPA is supposed to be unbalanced, and when you try to balance out the extreme hoppiness with extreme maltiness you lose the appeal.