Pisgah Vortex I

Brewed by Pisgah Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Black Mountain, North Carolina USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

An extravagant thanks goes out to cool josh from beer advocate for this special brew! Had the pleasure of sampling this at the 7/9/2009 Pittsburgh RB tasting extravaganza (PGHRBEXT) at the Sharp Edge Creekhouse. It will be a long time, if ever I see a spread of bottles like I did there. I am not good enough for the beers that were that we served! For example, how about this beer: vortex, yewow! Smell is cloyingly sweet and alarmingly weird hops. Cloudy light iced tea in color. Some carbonation greets the tongue. However, this stuff is strong and alky, wew. Way too much for this lager lover. I think my taste buds are getting sucked into the vortex of a tornado tempest. Strong, chewing green grapefruit rinds soaked in alky. I don’t really know if this is beer or not except for the hops. Very, very triple hoppy. Did I say this was hoppy? Certainly terribly on style.

This one poured a bright orange color with a big eggshell head. Aroma was sweet malts, a good bit of bittering hops, and loads of alcohol. Flavor was much the same, a decent beldn of sweet malt bomb and hops more like an ASA, but completely overwhelmed by the alcohol. Blah

Sampled from a 22 oz brown bottle this beer poured a murky orange-brown color with a large tan head. The aroma was strong floral and fruity hops. The flavor was harsh, strong and very boozy with noted rough fruity and floral hops. The finish was dry, boozy and floral.The mouthfeel was thick. The alcohol really detracted. Ok.

Had this one at the RB Pittsburgh tasting. Honey and hops in the scent. For some reason I wrote "glossy" as the description for the appearance. Clearly the lineup was taking it’s toll on me at this point. Taste is good, reminds me of a super hopslam. Mouth is medium in carb and body.

Bomber. Pours a deep orange-amber with a tall stand of ecrue head. The aroma is quite lovely, full of tangerine, orange, apricot, peach, wildflowers, honey, a little bit of pine, slight bubblegum, only a distant trace of alcohol, some herbal tea, and just a tiny bit of ginger and oriental spices. The flavor isn’t quite as fruity as the nose, but is more focused on the piney hops (what I usually get from Chinook). Some herbal and floral nuances keep it from being too one dimensional. As it moves through my mouth it takes on a strong toasted wood quality. This leads to a semi-dry, quite bitter finish with lots of pine, some tannicity, some lemon, a little bit of cashew, and some apricot. Warm alcohol follows, and into the aftertaste all that citrus fruit I got in the aroma reappears. Very good beer... I paired it with some pulled pork bbq I made and it worked out quite well. Yum.

Hazy amber with a large off-white head. Aroma is of bubble gum, citrus, apricot, spices, pine and hops. Taste is of hops, pine, grass and earth.

magical gift bottle courtesy of turdferguson, the beer sommelier and fedex. very nice translucent light sienna pour with a nice 2 finger orange-creamsicle head that lasts through the entire glass. nose is very delicate and subtle, with hop resin, earthiness and wild flower honey coming through. taste is a well balanced hop bomb. large wildflower honey sweetness in the taste, very earthy hops, and a nice slightly burnt caramel finish. aftertaste is a perfect balance of sweet and bitter, delicious!

Bottle, thanks Ryan! Amber pour, light head. Nice aroma of floral/citrus hops and caramel malt. I get some notes of tropical fruit as well. Flavor is a bit sweeter than I expect, a big malt bill with some tropical fruit flavors and some lost hops. Not bad, not world class either.