Pizza Port Hop Suey Double IPA

Alpha King Competition 2006: So nice I had to buy the shirt. Poured a dark amber color with an off-white head. Great mix of big pine and caramel malt. Hop foward and fresh like the cones are right there. Piney and acidic flavor. Malt gives the beer balance which caused us to put this in the finals. Took 2nd place.

Pour is nice golden yellow with a dense white head...smell is citric and grapefruit with lots of piney resin character...taste is not as overpoweringly hoppy as I smelled...nice and sweet with a clean crisp bitter finish...

Golden copper, very nice head retention for a Beer like this, I’m impressed.
Bang! Someone just shot pine cones up my nose! Green, green hops, and tons of it. Grapefruits, cut grass, weedy, you name it, it’s there.
Thick body gives you almost a syrupy start to it, then you just get bitch slapped with hops. It does however finishes surprisingly clean and maybe a bit salty too, something I appreciated as it left you wanting a bit more each time. Sometimes when the aftertaste is just too much I get sick of it, but not here. Spicy, pepper notes with the avalanche of C hops.
Screw the nice weather, this is why I came to California.

Had this a couple times at strong ale fests but never rated it for one reason or another. Finally sampled again at the 2006 GABF and it was as amped and tasty as ever. For hopheads, this is as good as they come. Hops were sharp, bold and ninja-like. Big pine, grass ... and nice and "green" ... without overkill bitterness or acidity to ruin the party (which seems to be so common with big, hoppy beers). Aromatic flower elements were complex. Malts were complementing, but definitely played nicely in the background. Great double IPA.

GABF 2006. Best IIPA of the fest and I drank a bunch of ’em. Just the perfect balance of pine, citrus, and grass in the flavor and aroma. Awesome.

GABF 2006. I drank a bunch of this. The beer pours to a 24k gold body with a foamy white head. The aroma is sweet juicy nectarines, peaches, grapefruit, and other citrus. The flavor is sweet and bitter with lots of nectarines, peaches, and some sort of spicy onion-like thing. Nicely balanced bitter resin to malt. Nice texture.

Golden color thick white head nice lace. Huge hop aroma lots of hop flowers sweet citurs and carmel backbone. Palate is rich oily and well coated. Flavor is a grassy bitter some pine resins a big carmel malt and a dry bitter finish. Very good stuff.

GABF 2006. Blonde in color, clear, tight white head. Aroma - wow, that’s a lot of pine! Not much else. Surprisingly, medium body. Good balance between malt and hops. Hops still dominate though. Spicy, peppery. Finishes pretty clean. Overall, nice beer but pretty one dimensional.