Upslope Imperial IPA

This Double IPA pours a slightly hazy, deep gold with a moderate head of persistent, tiny, cream-colored bubbles – looks very inviting! The first sniff is a delicious combination of bread crusts, crackers, grapefruit and tangerine, with a background of honeydew melon with more pine tree notes as the beer warms slightly. The flavor is complex – the bread dough and bread crust profile provides just enough malt to hold up the big resiny and pine hop expression with lots of tangerine, some woody notes, and some apricot and gooseberry fruit esters. The base water is slightly minerally, which helps to present the hop bitterness cleanly and crisply. The balance is slightly to the bitter side, but this is a huge hop bomb – with some dry-hopped notes. With fairly high carbonation and substantial alcohol warmth, this is a big beer. Enjoy this in a snifter and not too cold – let it warm up a bit to present all those luscious hops!