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Batch 153, Brewed April 2008; Sampled February 2009
A solid, but careful pour produces, three-fingers of pale tan colored froth in my 25cl tulip glass. The beer is an orange tinged, honey color that shows an incredible carbonation and an orange-gold color when held up to the light. The aroma is quite hop focused, but seems to have lots of sweet malt character that accentuates fruity hop aromatics. Notes of candied orange-zest, concentrated tangelo, orange cream candies, essential citrus oil and a touch of herbal character are concentrated at the front of the aroma, while the back end adds notes of toasty, biscuit-like malt and some dusty grain notes.

Not as sweet as I was expecting, though this does have a light sweetness to it. Flavors of alcohol tend to dry this beer out a bit and it has an ample carbonic bite to it as well. The citrus character that was so prominent in the aroma is not nearly as noticeable in the flavor; this is lightly accented by notes of bergamot, a touch of lychee and some orange juice flavors. The bitterness is fairly soft for your Typical double IPA, but does provide a lingering bitterness to this beer. The alcohol also accentuates a grassy, herbal hop character just a bit, with a bit of green, vegetal astringency in the finish. This vegetal note seems to grow as the beer warms up. The body of this brew is definitely on the light side for a 9% abv beer, which is right in line with how I like my Double IPAs.

The flavor is surprisingly un-hoppy considering the aroma of this beer, or perhaps it is better put that the hop character is the most dominant part of the flavor but it comes off as weak and flabby somehow. This is definitely one of those beers that did not live up to the promise of its aroma.

Served In: Tulip