Willimantic Pushing the Envelope Extreme

(growler, thanks kmweaver) Creamy off-white head atop cloudy amber body, nice lacing. Aroma is moderately sweet, herbal/grapefruit, some pineapple, mint. Aroma is moderately sweet, grapefruit, some pineapple, mint, alcohol. Sharp bitterness. Medium body, chewy, some resin.

Date: 02/01/2008
Mode: Growler
Source: Tasting, Pre-Sex

Appearance: hazy dark copper, frothy off white head, many bits of lace,
Aroma: sweet crystal malt aroma with huge amouts of citrus and pine hops,
Body: creamy body,
Flavor: lots of hop flavor, touch of grassy character, tongue scraping hops, lots of crystal sweetness comes in to keep the abundance balanced, long bitter finish,

Aroma: 8/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 8/10; Palate: 7/10; Overall: 17/20
Rating: 4.1/5.0
Drinkability: 9/10
Score: ***+/4

Growler courtesy of kmweaver sampled on 2/1/08: Pours a transparent bright orange with a clingy-lacing frothy off-white head. Has a pretty big, fresh resiny grapefruity hop aroma with a mild caramely sweetness hiding underneath. Body starts with good fullness and fresh grapefruity hops dripping with resin and nicely balanced with sweet, lightly toasty crystal malt. Quite drinkable too. A great double IPA!

Brown copper amber body, using some darker malts than I usually expect in IPA/DIPA. The nose is quite fruity and hoppy, with some resinous cedar and cherry malt flavors tasted, and fruity pineapple, red apple and orange hop notes. It doesn’t ever really come together, though, and it turns more towards a wet, crunchy cereal grain flavor over time, finishing with, on one side - sweet orange and pineapple hops, and the other side – oat flakes, cereal and wet cardboard. Still, a good IPA, but perhaps there’s been a big change between this batch and the previous batch.

Poured a clear copper color with a thin off-white head. Grapefruit, citrus and pine hop forward aroma. Hop forward flavor with a short sweetness. Bitter citrus rind finish. The finish dries out as well.