Lagunitas Maximus

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

Pours slightly turbid deep copper with a white head and significant hop floaties (I threw an ounce away, damn it!). Aroma of big resiny hops, pine, citrus, malt, and slight fine cognac. Great aroma. Tastes hoppy, malty, with some fruit and a well balanced, very complex finish. As it warmed, some syrupy apricot and caramel made themselves known. This one is heavily hopped (and dry hopped) yet very well balanced, with more fruit/resin/biscuit at the esophageal space. This one is up there with Hercules and Marin White Knuckle as the cream of the lower-upper tier of Impy IPAs. I kicked myself hard for not buying 6 of these.

Light hazy gold with restrained hops aroma, very pleasant. Good solid sweet malts with hops comming well in final, but not in your face. Alcohol very present, but overall pleasant. (Sept. 2004)

Head is initially average sized, frothy, off-white, mostly lasting. Body is hazy medium amber. Aroma is moderately hoppy (pine/resin, grapefruit, flowers, apricot), lightly malty (cookie, bread), lightly yeasty (dough), with light notes of peach and orange. Flavor is heavily sweet, lightly acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is moderately sweet, moderately bitter, moderately acidic. Medium to full body, velvety/watery texture, soft/lively carbonation, lightly alcoholic. A 6-12 month old sample was better (for my tastes) than this obviously fresher, hoppier, leaner sample. Still, very good for the style.

22 oz bottle. Bright clear orange, thick fully lasting puffy head, substantial lacing...resin dominant in the pungent, earthy hop aroma profile, perhaps some leather and grapefruit...ample body presents a challenging amount of wet piney PNW hops, low to moderate sweetness, intense bitterness late along with an odd and perhaps misplaced licorice-anise undertone...it’s interesting, different from other IIPAs I’ve had recently, but doesn’t totally come off for me.

Resin and grapefruit aroma (and malt). Gold tending towards reddish amber (top to bottom under halogen), maybe a ruby hint towards the bottom. Medium feel, malt to start, moving to hops, to grapefruit, to hops. Grapefruit noticeable at the finish. Swish and it’s chewable. Swish and an apricot component appears. And it’s 78 ibu. Nicely astringent when all is done. Pine in the burp. Really, really, great.

i imagine this would have been better on tap. amber, aroma was more subdued than expected and quite citric. a little flat, peach nectar texture, hint of white grape, finish of aluminium roofing

A crisp IPA that stands out from the crowd. The body was dark orange. The aroma was caramel and grapefruit with not much else. Nice strong aroma. The taste was bitter with grapefruit and peanut shells. There is also some caramel. Finishes clean. Nicely done.

Sweet orange, cookie-like yeast and marzipan in the aroma. Pale copper coloured with plenty of yeast in suspension. Off-white head recedes to thin cover. Agressively bitter and very strongly alcoholic. Seems like there’s not enough malt to balance. Smooth in the mouth but fairly simple. Low carbonation. A bit of a one-dimensional hop monster. Bottle enjoyed with beerbuzzmontreal, lubiere, MartinT and Rastacouere.