Portsmouth Imperial IPA

Brewed by Portsmouth Brewery
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Serve in Shaker, Snifter

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Pours a deep copper color with a big eggshell foam that laces and sticks. Aromas are sweet pineapple, pine and caramel malt. The flavor starts out with a moment of bright tropical fruit but quickly bitters and gets very vegetale, onion on the mid to late palate. Very herbaceous lingering notes that ruin the fruit flavors that showed promise.

Had tap at the source. Golden amber pour. Nice half-pinky white head. Smells straightaway of pine cones and pine needles, limes, mango slushie,coconut and American yeast. Tastes of caramel, piney hops, sea salt and black pepper. A bitter malt bomb in every sense of the description. Its bitterness which really gets you at the deglutition, resembles onions, chives, and plastic. Am I going to order this again? NO.

Draft @ the pub. Served in a snifter. Amber in color with an orange type hue. Decent head retention. Aroma has nice Earthy tones of hops, mostly pine and citrus. Nice blend of hops here. The afore mentioned pine and spruce notes upfront, balance out with a bready malt. Citrus and floral hops near the back end of the finish. Grapefruit notes, maybe oranges. Lighter/ medium bitterness as the brew warms. Does not linger real long. Body is medium. ABV is hidden nicely. Overall it is tasty and well worth a try.

On tap at the brewpub in Portsmouth, NH. Pours a cloudy orange colored body with a finger-width, frothy, white head that dissipates slowly and leaves a nice lacing throughout. Aroma is semi sweet orange florals and a light pine with some other citrus resins and a somewhat sweeter caramel backing. A bit of a stale earthiness to the hops. Flavor is slightly candied oranges with pines, some grapefruit citruses, earth, and florals. Sweeter caramel backing before the earthy hops and citruses grow into the finish where this is dry, resiny, fairly bitter, and citrusy sweet before leaving a lengthy aftertaste. Medium-light body and a soft, moderate carbonation. Overall, an alright DIPA. Lots of orange citruses that are a tad sweet with a good amount of bitter pines and earth.

From notes. First reviewed 7/1/2011. Poured from a 22 oz. bottle into a tulip. This pours an earthy caramel color, mostly transparent with a small beige head. Decent retention and spots of lace down the side of the glass. The aroma is earthy, peaty, and has some caramel malt. A bit of spicy pine and citrus hoppiness as well. In the flavor, the malt presence up front is very smooth. A lot of earth and peat in the flavor, along with a lightly roasted character. Resiny pine and spruce combine with earthy and spicy notes to provide a strong hoppiness, with bitterness that lingers well through the finish. Some The mouthfeel is a little bit buttery, smooth, and fuller than medium bodied. Medium carbonation. A smooth, enjoyable Imperial IPA with some good English character.

Pours a deep amber with a thin white head. The aromas are citrus and grass. Mouhtfeel is sticky and bitter. Cheers!

22 oz. bottle from jammalamma. Pours a hazy orange amber color with a small off white head. The aroma had orange citrus and resiny hops with a modest amount of sweet caramel malts. The flavor was resiny and herbal up front. Soft caramel malt notes and a touch of orange at the finish. This did not seem to be Imperial at all. Maybe good for a general IPA.

(22oz bomber thanks to thirdeye11) pours dark orange. Smells super hoppy, sweat, dark blood orange. Taste has the hops but not quite as strong a flavor as the aroma or bitterness.

Thanks to Alex... we had this a couple months ago from a bad growler so even the hardcore reviewer that I am, didn’t review it, the new bottle didn’t improve and may have even been worse, this is a horrible beer... pours a murky ugly copper, hardly any carbonation, light watery bubbles... the nose is horrendous, it smells like vomit laced with fresh oranges... the taste isn’t as bad, not sure how it could be, but still not very good, very bitter pine and alcohol... feel is flat

On tap at the brewpub on November 6, 2010. Pour brought a nice light amber-brown color with a pretty good head and quite a bit of lacing. The nose was pretty sharp with bitterness but didn’t offer many differentiated hops. I got a bit of grapefruit and pine, though it was hard to pull individual elements out. The same situation existed with the taste, where I got a really strong dose of bitter hops without much of any backing malt, I couldn’t really place much other than just saying it was "hoppy." Really bitter feel and a dry finish. A pretty good brew, but I preferred the 5 C’s. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 11-14-2010