Oskar Blues Gordon

Brewed by Oskar Blues Grill & Brew
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Lyons, Colorado USA

Bottle: Courtesy of Styles. Very sweet with a nice citrus hop balanced aroma. Pours an orangish-red with little transparency. Off-white ehad. Doesn’t really look like an IIPA. Very malty up front with caramel. Finishes with an excellent combination of chocolate and hops. Chocolate throws me off for an IIPA, but I really like it. Finish reminds me a little of Alpha Klaus. I really enjoyed this one.

Can via CaptainCougar. Pours to a clear dark amber body with a thick and lasting tan head. Rocky with awesome lacing. The aroma is juicy peaches, apricots, dried papaya and mangoes. The flavor is sorta hoppy but also extremely malty. Caramel and honey with sweet nectarines. Really sweet non-bitter flavor. Doesn’t really taste like an IIPA. Too sweet and not hoppy/bitter enough. Nice medium palate. 9.2% is nicely hidden. Not as crisp as I hoped.

On tap at Mad Mex, Monroeville. Wonderful aroma of apricots and orange blossom honey, papaya and pine resin. Smooth and sweet nose with light candy sugar. This aroma makes me smile. Iced tea clear, amber-brown with thin off-white foamy lacing head. Medium watery body with medium-soft carbonation. Smooth, with some alcohol warming. This is like drinking hoppy carbonated apricot nectar. Delicious. Well rounded and not bitter in a harsh way. Has fruity complexity throughout and finished with a nice mellow bitterness that’s not overpowering. A really mellow, enjoyable double IPA.

7th Annual Strong Beer Festival, Mesa, Az. Can. Grapefruit and pine aromas. Copper body with decent head. Citrus hop flavors refreshed the palate. Good citrus palate cool and crisp.

That’s one bitter hop aroma. This is a pretty hoppy beer. Flavor is mostly bitter hops as well, but not too heavy in the finish. Doesn’t seem too strong. Certainly tasty.

12 oz can. Pours a slightly hazy dark orange body with a small one finger fizzy off-white head that retained as a thin film. Big crystal malt and caramel aromas surround a heavy handed, slightly piney, hoppiness. Smells very candy like. The hops and malt are actually really well balanced, they’re both huge. Lots of caramel sweetness, though there is a little too much stale iced tea crystal malt showing thru, especially towards the finish. Fairly heavy bitterness up front, but it doesn’t linger very long. Mouthfeel is full and thick with a little stickiness and nice soft fizzy carbonation. Overall, a pretty nice beer, but the more I drank of it, especially the second half of the glass, the crystal malt got on my nerves quite a bit.

Can shared with jerc & mabel - their can. Dark amber with a small beige head. Aroma of green and resiny hops. Medium body. Flavour is quite full and balanced, with big malt and big hops both sitting nicely together. Well made and enjoyable, but it didn’t knock my socks off. I’ll give it credit, though, for hiding that 8.7% very well.

Super dark amber coloured body, almost deep brown with a super-dense tan head. The cork on the 750 mL bottle was almost impossible to get out, but once I did, no carbonation seemed inside the bottle. How wrong I was though on the pour! Aroma of strong caramel, toffee, crazy hops, alcohol, peaches and a bit more hops. Medium-bodied; Strong hop kick up front with a spicey finish and almost no malt backbone at all. Strong on hops, not strong on anything else. Some bitter flavours finish the beer with perhaps a few burnt sugars and some nuts. Overall, not as good as I had been expecting although the appearance showed me an untraditional IPA. I bought this 750 mL bottle at Whole Foods in Vienna, Virginia and sampled it on 23-October-2004.