Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Longmont, Colorado USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

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Bottle. Light caramelly malts, moderate hop notes of herbs and pine and a light broth smell for the yeast, with white wine and brown sugar in the background. Fizzy white head with excellent lacing, color is a hazy light copper. Flavor starts lightly sweet and acidic and the long finish is moderately sweet and lightly bitter. Palate is medium, oily with lively carbonation and a heavy alcoholic finish. Good but the unbalanced taste and the strong alcoholic finish keeps this from being a really good beer and the price will keep me from buying it. I know my rating came out a little high for this beer because of my liking of all things that are double.

Hoppy aroma is not strong but has a good fruity undertone and a hint of caramel. It pours a nice clear, rather dark amber with a decent pale tan head. Flavor is QUITE hoppy, evergreen and a little bitter, with hints of grapefruit, apple and caramel. Texture has plenty of fizz and good firm body.

Bottle 22oz in Arizona. Unique imperial ipa initial note of plums and apricots. Plenty of hops with spicy palate Interesting beer

There’s not much more that I can say about the beer that hasn’t already been discussed: overall, it is a very good Double IPA. In this case, Left Hand meant for Twin Sisters to contain both double the hops and double the malt of a traditional IPA.

I haven’t had that many IPAs from Colorado, but something I’ve noticed about the ones I’ve had is they tend to be very malty for the style. Not sure what it is about that state, but they seem to like their IPAs thick, sticky, syrupy, and sweet as opposed to crisp, citrusy, and refreshing. Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA is probably the epitome of the double strength version of the style from the land of the Rockies, and it’s certainly one to get behind.

I poured a 22oz bomber into a tulip glass.

Appearance: Extremely hazy (opaque, actually) bright shade of orange. No carbonation visible but it does form a good sized eggshell colored frothy head which retains and laces very well.

Smell: Overtly malty for a beer of the style with strong confectionary notes of caramel and toffee. There’s plenty of pine aromas, too and a subtle fruit juice concentrate scent in the background.

Taste: Tasting the malty side of a double IPA first is not something I’m used to, even with almost 800 beers under my belt, but that’s the case with Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA. It starts out with a strong bitter, but delivered in the form of a thicker, softer, almost syrup-like body. Sweet, confectionary flavors of caramel and butterscotch begin the palate. There’s plenty of pine sap flavor to be found as well, and it helps with the transition to the very bitter second half.

The later part of the palate emphasizes the wide variety of hops used in brewing this beer. There’s a sweet fruit flavor akin to pure fruit juice concentrate instead of the usual fruit pith or peel itself. There’s even a chocolate-like taste of dry bitterness. Overall, I prefer my IPAs less malty than this, but this is a nice change of pace.

Drinkability: Weighing in at 9.6% ABV and 77 IBUs, Left Hand Twin Sisters Double IPA definitely is a big beer on paper. The thick, almost chewy mouthfeel certainly backs up that sentiment too. The body is soft and fairly tepid - it’s not crisp, and it’s entirely too sweet to be refreshing. The hops linger, but the sweetness does, too, creating for that strange, but pleasant hop syrup sensation. The alcohol is blended extremely well with the brew as there’s no alcohol warmth or other distracting presence.

Beer pours with an off white rapidly diminishing head with some lacing. Nice malt backbone with well balanced and aromatic hops. Not as good as DF 90 but will do in a pinch

Strong citrus and pine in the aroma. The flavor is piney with a grapefruit and very dry in the finish. Not really a spectacular DIPA, but very solid nonetheless.

08 bottle, poured slightly hazy orange with white head. Skeptical of a 3 year old DIPA but the aroma changed my mind instantly, big juicy orange, aged hop, pine notes going into a nice deep toffee and caramel note. Lots of citrus with tangerine, orange in the forefront of the taste, going into some grass and pine with a very nice caramel middle, finishing very bitter and tasty.

Bottle (2010) to snifter. Pours cloudy amber with a tight off white head that fades to a tiny collar. Aroma sweet sugar and caramel with some bitter candied grapefruit. Taste is more sweet caramel malt and biter grapefruit with a warm aftertaste. Palate is full and sticky with a warm dry finish.

Bottle. Hazy deep orange, medium creamy white head. Nose is honey, pine, grass, cough syrup and a good dose of pale malts. Taste is smooth honey cough syrup tones with mild grassy flavors to boot. Very balanced, smooth mouthfeel and highly drinkable. A splendid example of an American DIPA, in the "hop juice" variety. Two thumbs up.

On tap at the Maple Sugar. I like rye, it added to the edgy bitterness in this DIPA. Dark orange colour, lacey. Average mouthfeel. Surprisingly no aroma. Good hop mix Cascade, Glacier, Tomahawk, Liberty and Crystal. Big IBU. Not the Best of the style, far from the worst, good drinkability.