Two Brothers Hop Juice

Brewed by Two Brothers Brewing Company
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Warrenville, Illinois USA

(22oz. bottle) Pours a lightly cloudy amber body with an average off-white head and good lacing. Potent aroma of pineapple, grapefruit, and light notes of breadiness. Flavor of caramel malt and hops; descent balance, although the hops seemed a bit weak for an IIPA. Bitter finish.

Bottled. Dark hazy orange colour, mediumsized creamy off-white head. Aroma is hops and yeast. Flavour is hoppy, grassy and alcoholic. The alcohol and hops reaches their peaks in the finish and leave a wellbalanced flavour afterwards.

Pours an orangish-amber color with a thin off-white head. Aroma is of citrus and pine hops, sweet malts, and caramel. Flavor starts off as citrus and pine hops that give way to floral hops and caramel. Decent bitter finish but not as much as a double IPA should have. Good but certainely not my favorite.

[Bottled, sampled at Oliver Twist, Stockholm] Cloudy golden colour. Flowers, sweetish, tropical fruits in aroma - bit restrained, I want more aroma hops. Flavour is fresh flowery with tropical fruits and a big bitterness. Super smooth body. This was indeed a laid-back IIPA. I’d prefer a load more of high alpha hops when it comes to flavour and bitterness. Still, this is a pretty big beer.

(04.28.06) One pint, 6 oz brown bottle from DiCarlo’s, Libertyville, IL. A double IPA with 9.9% ABV, 22.7 P, 100.1 IBU. Poured hazy orange with small white head. Some white particulates. Soft carbonation. Fruits, hops and sweet malt aroma. Medium bodied ale that starts with light malt sweetness and pronounced citrous hop flavor. Finished with light hop bitterness. Well balanced ale with a firm supportive malt base and a leaning towards hop flavors. More hop flavor than bitterness. An excellent drinkable beer.

Pours a murky cloudy unfiltered golden color with a nice layer of big white bubbles. Nose is big on the hops as you expect but it is also very sweet like someone dumped the juice from a can of peaches into it.But man,not a total IIPA to me but I always expect a hop smack down from these things. Lots of syrupy sweetness takes to much of the hop flavor from the tongue.

Rerate. If I remember correctly, this was one of my first IIPAs. 22oz, no date. Clear light copper with a minimal beige head, low retention. This doesn’t seem like the freshest sample, but let’s keep on keepin’ on. Piney citrus hops and some caramel and light toast making up the backbone. The hops aren’t near strong enough for a double IPA, but again, I don’t know the age of this and remember how much I hate it when a brewer doesn’t list a born on date. Grassy hops do show up in the flavor, but I’m underwhelmed by the hops and the bitterness overall. With a name like hop juice, they should at least border on perfumey--they don’t. There are some caramel malts for a malt backbone. Full body with low to moderate carbonation. Not as good as I remember. Old rating follows. This 22oz bomber has no date, but he’s been in my closet since last October, so I think it’s 2005 (only think they did one run of these anyway). Pours a hazy reddish orange with a ring of off-white head. Big aroma of grapefruit and resin, with some pine in the background. Some toffee malts are also present, with a little bit of a boozy aroma. Taste is the same with the addition of some raisins, though overall flavor is not as big as one would expect. Bitterness never gets really huge either. Full bodied, almost no carbonation at all. Pretty decent. 8-4-7-3-13--3.5

22 oz. bottle. Pours a dark copper with thick white head. Citrus and floral aroma. Flavor is typical IIPA without the extreme bitterness. Alcohol is unnoticeable. Terrific mixture of malts and hops. A very nice IIPA. Better than its rating.