Lagunitas Sirius Ale

Brewed by Lagunitas Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Petaluma, California USA

This is an interesting and admirable beer. Golden, bubbly, and faintly hazy, it has a fairly thick off-white head that lasts a while and leaves some decent lacing. The aroma is almost all hops, but a mix of citrus and pine, & it has faint fruit and biscuit elements as well. The taste is similarly almost all floral, citrusy hops, but not so much that it tastes like grapefruit pulp or the like. It has some bitterness but much less than what I’d expect from a beer whose aroma and taste are this hoppy. There is also definite fruitiness (sweet grapes) and sweetness, especially near the end, and the finish is slightly biscuity before the alcohol astringency comes through unpleasantly. I suspect that the lack of bitterness is it doesn’t take much hop to dominate the rest here. It seems rather like a hoppy strong pale lager or malt liquor, which I guess makes sense. It has a pretty nice, full palate. It’s fairly good and has some very nice and intriguing qualities, but it’s not really what I look for normally.

Pours dark golden with a fully receding off-white head. Aroma of light toffee, citric hops, fruity piney resins, and sweet candy. Mouthfeel is medium to full bodied, lightly sticky and resinous with lush carbonation. Another Lagunitas ASA, seriously?

Bottle. Amber body, small dense white head, mild nose. Fruity body with a somewhat astringent finishing bitterness.

Slightly unclear amber with a lasting white head. Wonderful aroma filled with fresh (munich?) malt, bread, caramel, peachy hops. Sweet and heavy flavour with caramel and fruit, quite overwhelming and close to cloying.

The Imperialization continues...Pours a murky golden orange with a sturdy cream head. The nose is rather subdued - notes of hay, caramel and dirty yeast. Big, chewy mouthfeel. More caramel and hay notes are jumbled into a cloying mess. No hops in sight to balance this monster. Yikes this is hard to drink. If there has ever been a style NOT to imperialize, it is indeed the cream ale.

Deep golden and slightly hazy with a dense and foamy head. Hoppy aroma and sugary sweet with a slight doughy yeast thing going on. Medium bodied, lightly carbonatewd and a bit syrupy. Big hop flavors with pins, tangerine and citrus. Long bitter finish. This is bigger than I expected.

Bottle. Honey body with a thick lasting foamy head. Nose-,medium citrus hops, very good American Pale Ale like nose. Taste-creamy thick mouthfeel, medium butter, unsweet light citrus, kind of wheaty, big hop presence (much more than I would of thought given the nose), medium bitter, light citrus. Tastes like a very well done slightly hoppy IPA with a soft creamy mouthfeel. Very well done.

Not bad by any means, pretty good actually, just not the best offering form this company.