Judge's Review: 91 Rating - Primordial Imperial IPA by Mother Earth Brew Co.

Primordial Imperial IPA by Mother Earth Brew Co. is a Double IPA and is being evaluated as a Double IPA (category 22A in the 2015 BJCP Beer Style Guidelines). The focus of the Double IPA style is hops, hops, and more hops. Additionally, despite being a high-alcohol content style, Double IPAs are fairly drinkable and lack a heavy malty body, which are more typical traits of Barleywines. Primordial IPA measures in at 9.0% abv and is hopped with Summit, Simcoe, and Amarillo hop varieties.

This beer pours golden in color, slightly hazy, with a medium, fluffy, cream-colored foam stand. The aroma is of aggressive hops with pine, resins, and grapefruit characters; the malt and esters hidden behind the hops. The flavor is similarly hop aggressive adding herbal and spicy elements to the pine and grapefruit hop flavors. A lightly nutty malt with a hint of sweetness provides a basic backdrop allowing the hops to be showcased. The beer is aggressively bittered to match the aggressive hop finish of pine and grapefruit hop flavors that linger for a long time on the palate.

This is a very nice Double IPA with an aggressive hop profile. But, the best examples, while aggressive, have a cleaner, less rough hop character. Regardless, hop heads will not be disappointed with this Double IPA. Cheers!