Stoudts Double IPA

Brewed by Stoudts Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Adamstown, Pennsylvania USA

On tap at the Vintage Estates, one of my favorite beer tasting arenas, thanks Nuts. Ubiquitous pale yellow american lager color and appearance. Yellowish white creamy head. Floral citrus aroma but not quite pine needles. Bitter oppressive chewing on grapefruit rind taste. Mouth coating bitter oppressive palate. Barely any carbonation. What can I say, one of my least fave styles. Bitter lingering medicinal finish that hangs for what seems forever.

This is a beer I have been growing very fond of. Sampled from a 12 oz brown bottle this beer poured a dark caramel color with a medium sized light brown head. The aroma is sweet fruity hops and a vague fruit cocktail scent. The mouthfeel is thick. The beer is heavily sweet and very fruity with a nice malt presence and strong hop flavor. My only complaint is that the beer is so incredibly sweet that finishing the bottle can sometimes be tough.

Cask/ hand pump at Blind Tiger/ NYC. This pulled a hazy lemon yellow with a prodigious head. Fresh grapefruit aroma. This starts with some malt sweetness with the hops coming right in next with a full bitter hoppy rage, before fading into a nice sticky dryness. Very nice smooth IIPA.

12oz. bottle. Predominantly piney and fruity aroma, some flowery sweetness and hop spice, but in general just not as aromatic as some other examples of the style. Deep coppery golden color, lightly hazy, with a lasting, fine head and wispy lacing. Flavor is practically dripping with hops, again piney and citric with copious amounts of juicy grapefruit and orange, complimented by ample background malt sweetness and peppery alcohol. Finish is long, bitter and warming, balanced rather nicely between the thickly sugary malts and abundant hop presence. Smooth, oily mouthfeel, with a generous, expansive body. The elephants on the label seem indicative of this beer’s strength.

Bottle, courtesy daknole. Pours a little hazy but clears to a bright copper with a thick and lacy off-white head. Sweet smell of grapefruit, hay, mango, a little pine, and a smidgen of alcohol. Sweet, sugary, almost oily full body and moderate carbonation. Moderately bitter finish, because the hops are fighting an uphill battle against a tide of malty toffee. The alcohol also shows up in the finish, but not enough to make the finish particularly hot; although I’d rather see this beer somewhere in the 8’s.

So, to summarize: needs more hops, less booze, and probably a bit lower level of non-fermentable sugars to bring it into balance. Otherwise, pretty darn tasty!

12oz bottle from Bev Mo La Mesa. One of the best double IPA’s I’ve ever had! Pours a hazy deep orange color, head was off white and big. Nose of grapefruit, pine and lots of hops. The finish was creamy....almost buttery! A great Imperial IPA!!!

LCRBM: Huge hops, grapefruit aroma dominates. Loads of fresh citric hops in the flavour. Nice simple caramel malt flavours to back it up. Tasty stuff.

settles in a snifter with an orangish-amber hue. The suds formed a thin, broken skin atop which grew thicker around the edges. The nose hints of manderine orange liqour, the strong alcohol vapors almost balancing the malty sweetness behind the citrusy hops. The thick mouthfeel reminds you that you shouldn’t play around with this beer..The orange-like hop tang flowering from the sweet malty stems..A good array of citrus flavors with alcohol depth of body and medium bitterness. Maybe a bit too full and heavy though for my palate right now. Alcohol heat lingers in the air trapped in your throat.