Le Cheval Blanc Imperial India

Brewed by Le Cheval Blanc
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Montreal, Canada

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Pungent Hops jump right out of the glass! WOW! This one is promising...Piney/citrus nose. Amber color,cloudy.Light sweetness, very bitter, Great balance between the two.Surprisingly light body with oily goodness from the hops.Lively carbonation, bitter finish but no astringency.This is the closest this brewer has ever been to the best American IPAS. Looks like he figured out how to get the maximum out of those crazy american hops.Love this beer!

Bu sur place en fut (12 oz). Rousse très brumeuse, petit collet beuge avec de la dentelle. Arome d’houblon amère et fraiche, d’agrume légé. Goût d’houblon fortement amère mais plaisant, arrière goût fleurie.

Tap at brewpub. 103 IBU means power-hopping, enough to balance that intense fruity yeast flavor. Piney and resinous, grapefruit. Maybe a little straight-forward but a great hophead brew. Felt like a dual-layer hopping, with a more herbal, dry and somewhat watery-refreshing finish. Totally enjoyable to me; I’m rating high but I just love this style and this one ranks good in Québec.

Very cloudy orange-brown body with a short lived off-white head. This is one intense and extreme IPA. A well balanced beer it is not. Full of very resinous hops with very high bitterness. Truly feels handcrafted, as far from a “clean” beer as it gets. Dirty body, like if they’ve thrown in entire hop plants and tree barks. Caramel juice and pine tree resin flavours. Intense to the point of being hard to drink quickly. 7.5% is absolutely perfect. More bitter than a once-millionaire following a divorce with a 20 year old bombshell without prenuptial agreement. I liked it a lot.

Draught. At Le Cheval Blanc, courtesy of Goldrak. Nice amber pour, average head, I think it might have been a tad cloudy. Loved the aroma - solid citrus hops and waves of pungent resin, wow, huge hops, fairly restrained alcohol, decent malt - tasted that way too, left my tongue tingling from the acidity in the hops - a really nice kick to it. Had a more "British" ale mouthfeel, dry, astringent/acidic, but American bigness, that crisp hoppy finish just kept rolling on. 3-4 pints of this would really mess me up - not the alcohol, the effect of that resin hoppiness!

En fût. Verre ballon de 14 oz à la brasserie. Arôme: Odeur d’houblon avec une pointe de caramel. Apparence: La couleur est emabrée voilée. Présence d’un moyen col mousseux avec une fine dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût d’houblon (conifère) avec une pointe d’épices. Longue durée de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est moyen avec une texture légèrement crémeuse. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. (Rating #858)

Pours a reddish amber with a small head. Hints of pine, peaches and grapefruit on the nose. Full body with an aggressive bitterness backed by a good malt backbone. Wow! This is bitter !!! It says 110 IBU on the wall and I believe it is so! Long warming finish with again some resinous hops haunting your palate. A great IIPA in my opinion, maybe a bit too harsh on the bitterness, but nevertheless a top class brew.

*Version cask: Tout ce qui a de plus westcoast avec un bon support malté. Belle amertume voilé pas trop asséchante.

En fût au Cheval Blanc. Couleur jaune foncé-ambrée, mousse blanche. Arôme de citrus, malt. En bouche, fraîche, citrus, malt, un peu de caramel faible. Finale amère, qui s’étend, un peu d’alcool. Très bonne.

Several bottles shared with several good friends at the brewpub. And what Greg said - we were hammered and don’t really remember a lot, other than scratchy notes - an easy to drink DIPA with a huge aroma, tons of citrus hops, and alcohol that is kept in check but does hit you. A nice offering.