Pizza Port Hop Suey Double IPA

Brewed by Pizza Port (Carlsbad)
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Carlsbad, California USA

Sampled at Lupulin Slam III. For me, this was the best hop bomb of the night. Clear amber with a medium off-white head. The aroma was full-on pine grapefruit hop explosion, just marvelous. Flavor of intense, violent levels of pine, grapefruit, citrus, wood, toffee and caramel. Just oozing with Pacific NW hop goodness. Slight touch of alcohol in the finish. Pleasant malt sweetness, plenty of hop bitterness as you would expect. Full and round with medium creaminess on the palate; moderate carbonation. Just a beautiful beer. I would kill to get a bottle of this.

On tap at the Falling Rock. Hazy gold-amber pour...this thing has hop fumes running over the rim of the glass. Big citrusy hop nose..one of the biggest I can remember. Even more of the same in the flavor...some decent malt backup..wow, very tasty. Medium to full bodied..great mouthfeel. Resiny bitterness lingers to the end. I could use a glass of this stuff right now for breakfast.

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.

Tap at Downtown Johnny Brown’s. Aroma is absolutely stupendous. Rather bright citrusy nose, tropical fruit, mango, grapefruit, pineapple and passionfruit. Orangey and citrusy with a soft perfumy muskiness behind it. Flavour is equally incredible. Initially loaded with bright tropical hop oils, citrus, lemon/orange/grapefruit and mango. It smells and tastes like a hop field... perhaps the most perfectly hoppy smelling beers I’ve ever come across. Flavour is surprisingly soft and delicate with a resinousness that just scream "fresh". It’s like pure hop essence in a glass. Goddamn, this is not a bad start to the day at all.

EBF ’05. A real citrus bomb. Gold color with a small head. Although the grapefruit/tangerine zest hits you first, there is a nice sweetness that tries to balance it out. A pure West Coast classic IIPA.

On tap at Mountain Sun durring their Hop Harvest Month. Ok, I know this is a high rating but damn is this a good very complex beer. The flavors that come through at this ABV was amazing to me. It had hop aroma that knoked my socks off, the flavor had citrus and pine notes, and followed up with a wallop of bitterness that must have taken a trailer load of high alpha acid hops to produce. I wish I had taken home a growler of this one.

1/25/08 On-tap @ PP C’Bad. Came in a pint glass with a nice sticky frothy white head on it. Looks a dark yellow almost orange color. Smells of straight up smells of hops. Piney and citrusy and hoppy. This is the hoppiest beer that I have ever had. Well, I guess as far as the citrusy, piney, still bitter and not the least bit sweet, type of hoppiness. Not the almost sickly sweet hoppiness of say, 120 Min. Palate is thick and hop syrupy but still smooth. Bitter, with great carbonation. Awesome hoppy beer. But it would probably kill your tongue after a couple.

Update 9/19/08 on-tap at PP C’Bad. Pours slight hazy orange/amber with a moderate white head, spider web lace. Smells dank , dark and grassy hoppy. Tastes the same plus bitter! Dank grassy hops with some dark citrus and lots of bitterness. Slight caramel sweetness under all that bitterness. Full body, good carbonation. 838317=3.9

On tap at the 10th Annual San Diego Strong Ale Festival: Pours a slightly hazy bright golden bronze with a thin coating of wispy off-white head. Sweet caramel malty nose boasts lots of fresh piny hops. Starts sweet and hoppy, intense in both regards, but well-balanced and surprisingly drinkable. Fresh, resiny, sticky, piny hops coat the tongue sprinkled with some sweet toffee flavor and hides the alcohol very well. This was my favorite beer of the festival.