4.4 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 9/10 PALATE 5/5 OVERALL 17/20
Great smooth subtle fruity hoppy aroma. Grapefruit, pears, and tea leaves with a honeysuckle sweetness. Smooth and addictive aroma, woody with fruit and flowers. Orange amber clear with just a bit of haze, with wispy off-white lacing head. Medium bodied with smooth carbonation - cask conditioned and hand pumped. This IPA is smooth from start to finish. Good fruitiness to start. Floral hops and mellow woody sweetness. Bit of oak, apples, some grapefruit citrusy oils. Great bitterness, but mellow, throughout with dry smooth bitter after. An awesome IPA that belies 7.4abv, and the cask conditioning did great things with this batch. This is a great beer for IPA lovers who think the Double D is a bit too overwhelming.
4.1 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Had this on cask in State College. Poured hazy copper with aroma of hopcit, fruit, spice. Complex taste and finish with fruit, hopcit, slight nuts. Great style.
3.7 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20
UPDATED: APR 1, 2009 Cask (forced) at the brewery. Initial flavor is ashy and stale hop cones, like the hops were aged, or at least you could taste some age in the hops. Dusty, yet doughy and bready as well. Appearance is unfiltered, ruby orange and cloudy red in the body, glowing even. Chewy caramel malt flavors abound, with somewhat grassy hop flavors present. Yeast is prominent, as is the norm with Otto’s, doughy and bready throughout. Has a light bitterness for an IPA, though the bitterness is heavy for a supposed British IPA styled beer. Has some sweet apple and pear flavors, even some white grapes in there. Gravity is higher than expected, it’s a bit heavy, that’s easy to see, reminds me of their DIPA actually, with the high gravity and also the grassy hop notes. Velvety texture, high carbonation from the cask (though it’s a forced cask), with some apple and caramel flavors in the finish, and still with that ash character. The sweetness is high, as is the bitterness, but the sweetness is not like bubble-gum, but rather like apples and pears and other overripe fruit.
3.6 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
On cask at the brewpub. Pours a dark caramel amber with a medium oft white creamy beige head. Aroma of tangy citrus, grassy notes and bitter hops. Taste of watery tangy citrus, bitter hops with a strong grassy presence.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 13/20
Draft at Otto’s. Pours an amber body with a white head. Nice pine, grapefruit, floral citrus. Some sweetness but still hoppy and enjoyable.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
brown with mild white head. mild hop aroma. flavor of bitterness with some nobel hop flavor and finishes witha crisp malt sweetness that has some oakiness/smokiness. a style that is not attempted enough and a nice version
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
On cask at Otto’s on our way to RBSG. Pours a gently hazed orange brown with a thin white head. Spicy citrus, light pine and toast, caramel and slight booze. Thinned out carbonation, smooth. Hoppy and earthy, probably better on draft. Long slow tangy bitterness with some grapefruit to it.
3.4 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
On cask at Zeno’s Pub. Pours a heavily hazed amber-orange, with a cream, soap up above. Punchy orange and citrus nose, lightly sweet with a bit of plum sugar. Flavor is lightly nutty, then heavy with some real catty and doggy hop character. Muddled. There’s a wide-ranging spice and some cask-yeast about. Salty. A bit of nice oakiness in the back end. Seemingly classic by British standards, but definitely not my favorite. Kind of all over the map and a bit unclean in the hop character.
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