Port Brewing Hop 15

Brewed by Port Brewing/Lost Abbey
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
San Marcos, California USA

Serve in Snifter, Tulip

Bottle: Orangey-golden, hazy, floaties visible, big stable rocky off-white head, a whole bunch of hops in the nose: resiny - grapefruity - piney - citrussy aromas, combined with a pretty solid caramelly background; moderate to solid dry bitter-sweet flavour, medium to full bodied, astonishingly soft; dominant citrussy-hoppy finish with fruity and vinous flavours. Great stuff.......

0.65l bottle shared with ClubGonzo and the rest of Bergen Tasting Crew. This one pours a really cloudy heavily unfiltered deep orange body packed with sediments and a small sidesticking bubbly off-white head. Aroma is intense hopy, intensified caramel-sweet, some notes of grass and hints of licorice perhaps?. Full-bodied, average to soft carbonation and it has a thick and oily mouthfeel. Stingy and bitter flavors. Lots and lots of grass and stingy piny hops. Also some sweet fruity notes and it ends nice and warming with some licorice-like flavors in the aftertaste. Really solid stuff.

UPDATED: AUG 19, 2011 Old Rating. Bomber. Amber colour that starts of clear but obviously gets cloudier from the second pour, thin white head. Incredibly fresh hoppy aroma, very alcoholic. Thick sweet malty body, peppery, syrupy (in a good way), sticky hops, bitter finish. A good beer but these bottles are far too big.

Keg at BrewDog Bar, Edinburgh. Pours a hazy amber with a small head. Lovely aroma of pine, tropical fruit, hops, pineapple. Taste is simply outstanding - sweet malts and hops that open up on the palate in a way I’ve never had before - it seems to start fairly narrow before opening out wide. You probably have no idea what on earth I mean, but at least I know. Finish is fairly dry with a very bitter aftertaste - quite punishing actually. Paradoxically, huge bitterness like that isn’t something I particularly like, but the beautiful taste redeems it. In love with tis - I want a lot more as soon as I can get it. Wonderful.

Bottle from Høkeren, Copenhagen, shared with Palme and friends. Pours a deep hazy orange body with a medium light beige head. Aroma is licorice, spruce, honey melon, caramel and hints of freshly cut grass. Nice. Taste is salmiac-like herbal licorice tones, spruce and hints of nougat and nuts. Nice and very smooth, but perhaps a bit too straightforward at times; I lack one more layer of complexity for this to really take off, as it is focusing on more bitter/harsher tones than some of it’s more fruity counterparts - and those kind of taste profiles require a bit more complexity to make things interesting. Moreover, I generally prefer more fruity versions of this style. A solid DIPA nevertheless.

Bouteille de 22 oz. Arômes complexes de houblon (fruits tropicaux, herbe fraîche, agrumes). On détecte également la présence d’un malt bien portant. Robe orangée et trouble, belle petite mousse qui tient bien et effervescence moyenne. En bouche, le houblon est évidemment bien présent, montrant une personnalité multiple, à la fois fruité, résineux et herbacé. Le malt, relativement moelleux et légèrement sucré, est également bien présent. L’alcool est très peu apparent. Longue finale présentant une amertume houblonnée d’intensité moyenne. Une belle DIPA, vers le côté malté du style.

(Bottle 29/06-2011) Good hoppy aroma, medium sweet and very bitter taste.

Bottle @ Pikkulintu, Helsinki. Originally rated on 5.2.2010. Great IIPA with a nice aroma. Notes of grass, hops and fruits.