Walking Man Homo Erectus Imperial IPA

Brewed by Walking Man Brewing & Public House
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Stevenson, Washington USA

Hazy orange, mostly diminishing off-white head. High pitched floral nose, brightly limey, expressive and voraciously candyish in its maltiness displays great character. Sweet experience that borders unknown territory. A dash of medicinal earthiness evolves into citrus land while miraculously avoiding any astringency. Original flavours, complexity and fitting alcohol presence make this a particularly successful I2PA.

Straw colored pour with minimal head. Nice aroma, fruity with adequate malt. Easy flavor at first. Light malt and hops; however, half way through you get a kick of pine and citrus hops to the mouth. Bit of peach in there. Very bitter finish. Strange progression of taste. Medium body which was adequate for the style. A fair beer, just unbalanced.

GABF 2005. Although I loved their Jaywalker, I wasn’t happy with either the IPA or this Double IPA. Darkened gold color. Very mild hop nose, with a light hint of flowers and grapefruit. Medium body with a slick texture. Approachable hop flavor, very mild overall, without much complexity.

(Draft: 2005 Hopfest at Brouwers Café in Seattle, WA) I’ve had some amazing, world-class beers at the 2005 Hopfest at Brouwers Café, so it’s kind of unfair to taste this one last, but a great beer must stand up to the best. While this is a solid double IPA, it’s too ordinary when compared to the superb beers I’ve had so far, and so it falls just short. Not that it isn’t a really nice beer, it’s just not world class. The flavor is moderately sweet and caramely, balanced by a moderately bitter, but solid grapefruity hops. Medium "plus" body, fairly crisp on the palate. Dark amber in color, fully clear. The smallish light tan head retains a thin unbroken layer for the session, and the curtain of lace densely covers the glass.

Portland International Beer Festival 2005

Clear reddish amber appearance, predominant hoppy aroma. Drysish, strong hop palate, fairly fruity, puckering snappy dry finish.

Draught @ Brouwer’s Cafe during HopFest 2005: Slight coppery orange, mild off-white head, spotty lacing, soft carbonation.   Sweet malty hop aroma, slight alcohol in the nose.   Green, or young, citrusy like flavor, semi-sweet, with a very slight alcohol burn.   Finish seems to be a bit astringent, almost like a major floral overload of sorts.   Gets a bit better as it warms.   Big body and mouthfeel.   Finishes fairly thick, very malty, very slight hop bitterness lingers.   Fairly clean at this point, so my advice is to let it warm up a bit.   Good, but not as good as I was expecting.

Had on tap. Copper color, a little cloudy. Has a bit of a soapy aroma, which kind of put me off. Taste is fairly thin, needs some more malt to balance the hops in my opinion, or just more body generally. Hides the 10% alcohol well. OK, but not great.

Pours a delightfully murky copperish color Smells very citrusy and grassy (from the hops). Avery dry and refreshing mouth fell. Good flavors of citrus, toasted malt, some oak flavors run wild here as well. As stated before does go from bitter to sweet.