Pyramid Outburst Imperial IPA

Brewed by Pyramid Breweries
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Seattle, Washington USA

Serve in Shaker, Snifter

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12 oz. bottle- Pours dark golden with a nice head that recedes to a thin layer and decent lacework, aroma is all grapefruit, sweet citrusy grapefruit, awesome. The flavor is initially sweet then immediately punches you with a wallop of bitterness, personally I was hoping for more citrusy grapefruit similar to the aroma. A simple one note IIPA that is good not great. Carbonation is medium high, body is medium, finish is bitter. Bitterness recedes as it sits making it much more palatable and easy to drink, but is still one hell of a hop bomb, for only 80 IBU’s (which I know is nothing to scoff at) it sure feels hoppier than alot of 100+ IBU beers, I guess those are just more balanced.

Bottle from Total Wine. Pours semi-clear orange with a small white head that quickly dissipates. The aroma leaves a lotto be desired with light caramel, light florals. The taste has a nice bitter bite with a bit of grapefruit and caramel.. dry finish. Tastes good but the aroma needs to complement.

Medium orange. Big hop punch in this one -- on the nose and in the flavor. Really quite good, with juicy mandarin, some pine resin, and a dry finish. This drinks like a craft DIPA from a much smaller brewery -- kudos to Pyramid for putting something like this in cases!

Pours a medium copper, clear. Floral aroma, some hop in the nose. Taste is semi sweet from the hops, malt is not very strong but balanced. Body is medium, soft carbonation, finish is long but not too long. A solid DIPA, well made, nothing super special about it..but would definitely have again.

I typically complain about IPA, but an Imperial IPA is a bit of an exception. This one packs a punch. Like John Cougar said, "It hurts so good".

Pours a hazy golden orange from the bottle with a fluffy white head that dissipates to leaves light lacing. Aroma of west coast hops, piney and floral with hints of citrus, a slight pale and caramel malt backbone. The taste is a bitter mishmash of hops, ends malty and funky. Could be a bit more balanced, but otherwise pretty solid DIPA.

A hazy copper-orange cololr, with a decent amount of eggshell-white head and a smattering of fluffy lace. Aroma is bitter, woody hops, with a touch of some ripe grapefruit. Spicy malts, akin to rye. Tiny hint of cooked veggies, but they mesh well with the woody scents. Flavors of very harsh, grain-heavy malts; you can practically taste the two rows of the barley at the swallow. Finishes with a more woody, pine-oil flavor, before settling back into some cooked veggie territory. The hops take on more of an English character than what you would expect out of the Pacific NW. The citrus is buried in the wreckage of timber. Feels chunky and creamy on the palate, like most imperials. This is one helluva hefty IPA.

Bottle, this ale had a clear copper pour with a little red mixed in, and made a one finger faint off-white bubbled head, the glass was effervescent with many streams of medium flowing bubbles, this beer left spots and fingers of lacing on the sides of the glass, there were aromas of toasted malt, a little orange fruit, hops were citrus, a little grass and grapefruit with malt sweetness and some caramel, the malt was out front in this ale, while the hops were in the background, I noticed very faint alcohol on the nose in the background, the flavors were toasted malt and caramel with citrus, grass and grapefruit hops, the finish had some bitterness but I expected more hops from a IPA2 ale, I do not taste the alcohol but I did feel it drying my palate a bit, the mouth feel was medium or a little less, the alcohol dried my tongue a bit, I found this IPA2 to be a simple malty with the hops in the background.

Draft at Naked City. Pours a clear amber tinted golden with dirty off white head that isn’t uniform but sticky lacing. Touch of peach and oranges with a bit of sweet bread on the nose. The flavor is very uniform and without glaring flaws. Light fruit, grassy pine, touch of ice tea and has good bittering on the end. Kind of a Jr. IIPA imho. I am going to line this up with Redhook, Widmer and Bridgeport IIPA and this is in the top 2 for me.

12 oz. brown screw off bottle. I hate screw off bottles. But, I’ll digress. No freshness date seen, but I really didn’t look for one anyway. Poured out a dark golden color, with a sticky tan head. Left a decent lacing down the sides of the glass. Aromas are of Nugget & Simcoe hops right off the bat. Pine tree, grapefruit, and roasted malts make up the bulk of the aromas & flavors. Alcohol is well hidden, but after 3-4 of these, you know it’s there. Decent body & mouthfeel. Finished slick & smooth, not astringent as do most ultra hoppy beers. Decent take on the style. I would buy this again.