Ivy League Pils
Heavyweight Brewing Company in Ocean Township, New Jersey, United States 🇺🇸
Lager - Imperial Pils Regular Out of Production|
Score
7.07
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8.8/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 9
From Aug 2006
Poured from 750ml a reddish-gold with a medium sized head of foam that shrinks slowly but remains as a solid ~1" layer and dang this brew loves to hug the glass. ;^)
The smell is quite strong of freshly baked biscuits and a bit of spice, wow. This one may be the best Pilsner for the nose that I've ever experienced.
The taste is big! The biscuits in the smell transfer quite nicely into the flavour followed closely by a heaping helping of hop bitterness that makes my mouth pucker but...in a darned good way. Oh, and there's some warming from the 7.3%abv but it's on the subtle side so the drinkability factor suffers not.
Bottom line: IMHO, this is a magnificent sample of the style, easily the best I've had. Go to the store and see if you can find it. Then...buy a bunch!
Many thanks to my good bud Nutbrown for including this in our trade!
Poured from 750ml a reddish-gold with a medium sized head of foam that shrinks slowly but remains as a solid ~1" layer and dang this brew loves to hug the glass. ;^)
The smell is quite strong of freshly baked biscuits and a bit of spice, wow. This one may be the best Pilsner for the nose that I've ever experienced.
The taste is big! The biscuits in the smell transfer quite nicely into the flavour followed closely by a heaping helping of hop bitterness that makes my mouth pucker but...in a darned good way. Oh, and there's some warming from the 7.3%abv but it's on the subtle side so the drinkability factor suffers not.
Bottom line: IMHO, this is a magnificent sample of the style, easily the best I've had. Go to the store and see if you can find it. Then...buy a bunch!
Many thanks to my good bud Nutbrown for including this in our trade!
Tried
from Can
on 17 Oct 2017
at 11:03
6.1/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 5.5
2006 bottle from Dorwart, shared with SuIIy on 11/11/06
Immense amounts of white head are very stubborn and slow to recede. Leaving the sediment behind produces a honey-marigold body with slight copper tints, medium-high clarity and quite lucid. Carbonation is light, but evident. Head sticks to the glass everywhere, providing vast sheets of lace. Yet another fantastic appearance from HW
Strong cattiness in the nose, mixed with dry, spicy rye and heavily sweet honey, bordering on syrupy caramel. I think the sweetness vastly outdoes the more dry aspects and the hops are subsumed as well. Light citrus notes of lemon and orange rind attempt to fight through to the surface, while some fiery alcohol warmth is evident on the finish as well. Strong aroma, though rather crass. I guess that’s sort of expected in a strong golden lager, but I dont see why it couldnt be more attenuated and more liberally dry-hopped. Spiciness comes with warming, but combines with the light alcohol vapors and almost seems phenolic.
Massively sweet flavor is difficult to swallow. Wow, this is ridiculously underattenuated. Burning, slick finish, with spicy and lightly citric hops that make little impression. Carbonation is tight, but still rather low, allowing the sweetness to grow very syrupy (think canned peach syrup) and cloy on the finish. Don’t see the appeal of this one; no finesse and not all that much complexity. Rye and some light biscuit notes are futile. Yeast is rather clean, though some crispness is imparted on the finish... but then swallowed again by the malt sugar. Damn spot on for style, I guess. It’s thick, it’s syrupy, it’s got apparent alcohol. Don’t think that’s what they were getting at though. Maybe if you approach it as a barleywine....Anyways, SuIIy and I couldnt finish the bottle.
Immense amounts of white head are very stubborn and slow to recede. Leaving the sediment behind produces a honey-marigold body with slight copper tints, medium-high clarity and quite lucid. Carbonation is light, but evident. Head sticks to the glass everywhere, providing vast sheets of lace. Yet another fantastic appearance from HW
Strong cattiness in the nose, mixed with dry, spicy rye and heavily sweet honey, bordering on syrupy caramel. I think the sweetness vastly outdoes the more dry aspects and the hops are subsumed as well. Light citrus notes of lemon and orange rind attempt to fight through to the surface, while some fiery alcohol warmth is evident on the finish as well. Strong aroma, though rather crass. I guess that’s sort of expected in a strong golden lager, but I dont see why it couldnt be more attenuated and more liberally dry-hopped. Spiciness comes with warming, but combines with the light alcohol vapors and almost seems phenolic.
Massively sweet flavor is difficult to swallow. Wow, this is ridiculously underattenuated. Burning, slick finish, with spicy and lightly citric hops that make little impression. Carbonation is tight, but still rather low, allowing the sweetness to grow very syrupy (think canned peach syrup) and cloy on the finish. Don’t see the appeal of this one; no finesse and not all that much complexity. Rye and some light biscuit notes are futile. Yeast is rather clean, though some crispness is imparted on the finish... but then swallowed again by the malt sugar. Damn spot on for style, I guess. It’s thick, it’s syrupy, it’s got apparent alcohol. Don’t think that’s what they were getting at though. Maybe if you approach it as a barleywine....Anyways, SuIIy and I couldnt finish the bottle.
Tried
from Bottle
on 27 Dec 2006
at 16:09
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle poured into a Corsendonk tulip glass. Looks great, big pillowy head, thick murky, dark golden body. Aroma is very present - sweet and floral aroma. Dont know how Tom did it but its very nice. Taste is is more herbal with slight sweetness. Some hop presence at the end. What I like is it really doesnt taste like a lager. Maybe its the rye malt but its great. The mouthfeel is very nice on this as well. A nice heavy body that feels llike cushions on the cheeks. Not strong carbonation but detectable.
Tried
from Bottle
on 10 Oct 2006
at 20:08
6.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
Thanks to JHop for sending this out to Richmond. Hazy orange color with a thin white head. Aroma of sweet honey. Sweet light grain flavor with a honey background.
Tried
on 02 Jul 2006
at 12:23
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
750ml bottle-pours a tall, foamy, light tan head. Color is hazy gold with plenty of effervescence. Aroma is grassy, hops. Taste is grassy. Well balanced light, mild malts and hops. Good hops presence, interesting, nice selection of hops. Good carbonation, good beer.
Tried
from Bottle
on 19 May 2006
at 19:38
6.9/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Cloudy, gold/orange pour with lasting head - the aroma has a hint of spices, some honey, bready malt, herbs - the flavor is much sweeter than expected (my experience with "imperial pilsners" makes me expect assertive hops, which this doesn’t have) - chewy and bready - honey and...lavender? - hops come to the foreground late, but never really balance out the sweetness - I can taste the rye malt in this - different - another interesting HW beer, but I don’t like it as much as most of their other experiments.
Tried
from Can
on 15 Mar 2006
at 19:27