Terrapin Big Hoppy Monster

Brewed by Terrapin Beer Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Athens, Georgia USA

12 oz bottle. Clear orange-red color, like New England in Autumn. Thick, bubbly off white head. Attractive mix of aromas including flowery hops, malty molasses, and a hint of grape candy. Flavors are similar with alcohol and a tangy, bitter hop finish that peaks after you swallow.

Pours an amber reddish color. The initial head was decent, subsided a bit (for an IPA/dIPA), but stuck around as a thin covering and provided decent lacing for the duration. The aroma was rich grapefruits, not much else (enjoyable). The flavor was hops, grapefruits in the front, pine and resinous notes in the background (although still in the forefront of the overall flavor profile). The malt backbone was again in the background, but of light caramel with some nutty notes. Moderately bodied, this thing finished very crisp and clean with a dry mouthfeel. Really, quite nice. I vote for a new Imperial Red/Amber category after this one and would love to take my next bottle head to head with Nugget Nectar. Now, that sounds like a plan! Re-rate, 3/07: Wow, this thing has turned a bit sticky thick after a year, but still not bad. Lots of teabags now, heavy caramel, hopping is still present, definite pine/resinous presence, light citrus. Oh well, it was fantastic while it was fresh, should have drank this right after the first one. Ratings left untouched.

2005 Bottle. Pours a deep amber red with a small but dense and lasting tan head. Aroma of molasses, orange zest and spice. Flavor is lots of brown sugar and molasses with notes of orange. Finishes with lots of piny hops and some alcohol. Nice full mouth feel with a dry finish.

Cloudy copper color, with an off-white head. Aromas are citrusy hops, malt, . nrown sugar/caramel. Flavors are hops, caramel, malt, and fruit. Very well balanced.

Bottle courtesy of ross. Pours a hazy dark ruby-copper with an average size diminishing tan head. Fantastic aroma of piney and citrus hops along with caramel malt and brown sugar -- simple but it smells great. Delicious flavour of caramel malt and fruit followed by a nice amount of those aforementioned hops and though there’s some alcohol, for the most part it’s very well hidden. Nice full body, creamy mouthfeel -- man, this goes down easy and so smooth. This is a damn good IIPA, I’d have this on-hand all the time if it were available locally.

Thanks for the bottle, lilkem! The body was medium ruby with a yellow colored head. The aroma had rich toffee with some grapefruit hiding behind that. There was also some Funky cheese here, in a good way. Dank and earthy. The taste is toasty with some rich, rich caramel. This reminds me of a young English style barley wine. This would probably be delicious with a few years on it. Glad the one I got had a little age on it already. Smooth palate on this very well made beer. You can tell it is a big beer, but the alcohol is not distracting. I hope they make it a regular production item.

Thanks to Duane for this bottle. Pours a deep copper red with a tan head that fades to just a thin coat on top of the beer. Aroma is spectacular: great balance of piney, citrusy/grapefruit hops aroma and the balancing sweet caramel malts. I spent a good couple of minutes enjoying the aroma before I started drinking. Very smooth, extremely well balanced beer!

Bottle from Larry and Tom. Brownish red colored with a slight, fast fading yellowish brown head. Fine lacing left behind. Aroma is a nice balance of the caramel malts and citrus/floral hops. Medium bodied with a lower carbonation level. Balanced flavors of the caramel and IBU’s, nicely hopped without an overwhelming hop presence. Sweet initially which fades into a citric hop flavor which lingers. Nice.