Smuttynose Big A IPA

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

Serve in Shaker, Snifter

send corrections   |   shelftag   |   edit barcodes   |   update pic

UPDATED: JUL 25, 2003 WOW! What a sharp nose on this! Deep bronze body with a nice citrusy and piney nose. The hops really make this a stand-out. The body is sharp but smooth with a slightly bitter finish. The fruit and malt sweetness come through as does the hop bitterness. Wonderful beer. A step below the Stone Ruination IPA. Recommended to IPA lovers and hopheads.

The nose is very hoppy, but not over the top. The beer poured well and formed an average head and lace. The beers color is a radiant fall orange. The palate is very hoppy with lots of soapy, earthy, and grapefruit, hop flavors. The malt profile of the beer is appropriately balanced with the hops and the beers gravity. I really enjoyed this juicy fruit hop bomb from my first sip to the last. This is a well-made and pleasing beer.

Thanks to jcalabre. Golden orange color, good presence of malt and piney hops in the aroma. Citrus and malt character not lost by the good measure of hops backing it up. A well done IPA,

Appearance: This pours a slightly hazy burnt orange/amber color Nose: This greets you will a nose of hops & resin. Flavor: A nice hoppy flavor up front with some hops to balance it out.

Poured a hazy orangy-golden color with a nice, pillowy head. Wonderful citric, piney, resiny hop aroma and flavors wit hmild bready and cookie-like malts to complement. Hop flavors are strong from beginning to end, and the finish is moderately bitter. Mouthfeel and body are just right - not too heavy. In short - A big, fat IPA with plenty of hops and malt to balance.

Initial pour yielded a light amber/golden hue. Thin creamy head and lace. Lovely nose of juicey, piney, citrusy hop resins, caramel like malt, oranges, bit of peach and more. Medium bodied, soft, sweet malts to start with hints of orange and caramel. Big bittering hops provide a nice interplay of flavors. Dry bitter finish with sweetness creeping in. . Resiny aftertaste sticks. Wonderful balance and damn tasty IPA. they nailed it.

UPDATED: JUL 20, 2003 New Rating (7/20/03): I used to like this one a lot. this was in my personal top 10. I was sharing a bottle of this with Btownbrewer and his wife. When she tasted it, she said "ugh, this tastes like grapefruit!". now before this, i thought this was a great amazingly hoppy beer with a huge piney aroma. i will say there was something about it i didn't like but i couldn't decypher what it was. she totally hit it on the head for me. I HATE grapefruit...and the thing is that after she said that, all i could smell and taste was grapefruit. no more pine. just huge ungodly amounts of grapefruit juice. i tried for the next half an hour to put it from my mind, but i coulnd't. i ended up dumping it out. now when i smell amazingly hoppy beers, all i think of is grapefruit (yuk!). Old rating: Big Frickin' A IPA! Holy hoppiness! yummy stuff. my only somewhat complaint is the lingering bittah aftah taste, but other than that it's great. Amazing stuff, go out and buy it now!

I've been waiting for a while to try this one, and when I found it, I picked it up in a heartbeat. This is tasted from a 22 ounce bottle, purchased at Beers of the World in Rochester, New York. The pour was very nice, a great darker golden colour -- on its way to a good amber colour, but stopped short. A good off-white head tops the beer and some orange highlights roam throughout the beer. To start off on the body, the pour was odd- it seemed that this beer was more of a barley-wine because it seemed really viscous. The smell is almost completely consisted of hops. A mouth-watering smell that will leave you wanting to take a huge gulp if you smell it a few times, then put it down. And the taste... A thick mouthful is the first feeling, then relieved by a nice mellow hoppyness and a strong malt flavour. The aftertaste is pretty bittering (a good thing) and there is some residual sugar in the palate. A pretty well done beer, almost at the line of drawing it an 'Imperial IPA', but I would still classify this as a normal IPA (as ratebeer has done :-). Worth picking up if you can find it roaming your store shelves!

Dark golden color with a small lacing of head around the sides of the glass. Robust hoppiness in the flavor but there's a lot more going on than just the hops. It is a little chewy, and even cake-like. Smooth, yet sharp and bitter finish. A very good IPA that I look forward to having again soon. definetly a hint of sweetness, but not syrupy or too heavy. Just well-rounded.

This is some great stuff - highly hoppy, but not overly bitter - slightly sweet, bready - looooooong, hoppy finish that leaves the mouth watering.