Smuttynose Big A IPA

Brewed by Smuttynose Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Portsmouth, New Hampshire USA

Serve in Shaker, Snifter

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Pours hazy orange with lots of floating yeast bits. Head is nice creamy beige excellent lacing. Aroma is grapefruit, pine and bread. Bitterness follows a sweet body, with hints of caramel, brown sugar and toffee. Hints of malt but mostly a smooth hop flavor with average carbonation and a bitter finish.

Smells Piney. grapefruit and pineapple from various hop aromas. Cloudy unfiltered and bubbly from the pour, from 12oz. bottle Best by 7/16/13 so fresh. Quite bitter and hoppy, more just a piney taste any fruity elements are blind to the tongue. Has a thick body and is well carbonated. Finishes dry and bitter, hides the monster abv and has some complexity to it, For IPAs with high ABV, this is one of the best I’ve had

I get lemon or lemongrass and maybe a bit of a sweeter tropical fruit in the aroma. A bit of dough. Some malt. Flavor is hugely bitter right off. It’s a dry bitterness without a lot of complexity. Like white grapefruit but muted in the citrus department. There’s a bit of malt to it, but the showcase is the hops bitterness. I keep hoping for some other hop flavors to break through. Finish is slightly dry, slick, bitter, and seems to last forever. I finished the glass about four minutes ago and I can still feel it on the back of my tongue and my teeth. If you like piney, earthy, insanely bitter DIPAs, I’d say grab this one.

A big IPA that packs that punch that it’s label promises. The body is cloudy and lemon/golden in color, there’s a medium head, and a big aroma. Lots of pine and citrus hops, with a mild malt backing it all up. The flavor is deeply bitter. This thing can hang with the big boys, like Ruination and even Palate Wrecker. This is a serious IPA. I’ll go back for seconds.

Very nice floral, pine, citrus aroma. Pours a clear amber with a thin white head. The flavor has a malt backbone with a bit of sweetness that balances the big hop presence. Well done.

Great double IPA has a mocha finish and gets better with each sip!! This is not for the faint of heart! has that great IPA flavor and you won’t be disappointed!! Top 5 IPA hands down!!

Uploading old ratings that were missing comments. One of the hoppier IPAs you'll have. Pine and resin with a little citrus. Very good. ---Rated via Beer Buddy for iPhone

Reviewed 2/2/13. 12 oz bottle into a Duvel tulip. A: Pours a very hazy orange-gold color with lots of yeast particles floating in the body. I like the head on this one - a three finger offwhite shade that looks wonderfully creamy. As it recedes, it leaves behind nice rings of lacing. Floaties aside, this looks fantastic. S: This one seems to be balanced betwen grapefruit peel/spicy pine hops and biscuity yeast/malt interplay. As it warms up, the malt profile gets stronger. Dare I say it smells like a bigger version of Finest Kind? Err, not quite, but the aromatic qualities are very suitable for what I want. T: Bitterness hits in a big way past the midtaste. Before that, this starts off rather sweet, with hints of caramel, brown sugar, toffee, and sugar cookie. Bold midtaste flavors of grapefruit peel, pine, black pepper, and even coriander gives way to a finish featuring an earthy sourness to it that I’m not sure what to make of. At first, I thought "argh, yet another IPA that eschews hop flavor for generic bitterness" - except after a few sips, distinct hop flavors do appear, quite vividly at that. Not all of them work for my tastes (never been a fan of pine-forward IPAs), but I admire its moderate complexity and permuting hop qualities. Cut down the pine bitterness a little bit, amp up the grapefruit qualities; and we could be looking at something really fantastic here. M: It definitely feels like a ’pine-and-crystal-malt’ forward DIPA, with its heavy texture and tongue-tingling coarseness on the finish. However, I really admire how easily it is to sip given it’s a touch harsh. Maybe it’s balanced more than I thought? The finish and aftertaste are VERY dry and mildly boozy, which might not work for everyone. The carbonation never gets in the way of the texture of the body, but the dry, coarse texture could be toned down in order to give the grapefruit hops some more breathing room. Becomes a touch boozy as it warms up. O: This one definitely grew on me. Really, it’s just like a bigger Finest Kind - the first sip doesn’t impress, but repeated swigs will allow its greater qualities to show up and catch the seemingly disappointed palate off guard. Well worth considering if you like big, bitter DIPAs.

Bottle->SA. Hazy orange/gold with frothy white head. Aroma: orange peel, pine, the shore. Palate is thick, almost chewy. Taste: pine hops, resin, citrus.

UPDATED: APR 15, 2013 Bottle. Pours a slightly cloudy golden orange color with big foamy head that fades slowly. Some chunks of sediment are floating around too and I thought I was pretty careful pouring. Aroma is fairly musty, lots of flowers, pine, herbs, citrus, and black pepper. Taste has almost no sweetness and a fairly high bitterness. Packs quite a punch of fresh hops and strong bitterness. Fairly thick mouthfeel, somewhat foamy but also very oily too. Finish is bitter and long, floral, pine, herbal aftertaste. Overall, very enjoyable. Re-rate 4/15/13 - Had this a couple more times. Appearance is still bad with sediment floating but I really like this. Tons of fresh hops and bitterness. Not balanced at all but I don’t care.