Road Warrior

Pours deep amber into a snifter. Off-white head with medium retention recedes to skim surface. Sweet caramel and pepper aromas. Full with dark caramel and toffee upfront turning to hot pumpernickel before the lasting bitter earth and pepper finish.

On tap at Tapwerks. Pours a very dark but clear amber with an off white dissipates to the edges. Aroma has a strong pine and resin note with a bit of grapefruit and a decent amount of earthy rye. Flavor begins with strong pine that is supported by resin and has a hint of grapefruit while the finish has a smooth rye backbone.

Pours orange with good head and lacing. Booze, citrus and some perfumey kind of essence. Sweet and bitter finish with nice rye elements. Nice. Bottle from Foodery.

Pours a dark, clear, copper-red, with mid-sized, pillowy head. Aroma is full of dank, spicy hops, some citrus rind, and even a touch of candy sugar. Flavor is bitter, hops-front IPA, with citrus flavors and even a touch of underlying sweetness. This is a rye-PA done right.

Bottle. Pours with a deep hazed copper hue body with a large off-white head. Aromas are of mosaic’s tropical resiny blueberry-ish character, fruity, earthy, mild DMTS. Some sweet malt notes. Flavors are of really sweet lipton iced tea. Way too much caramel and crystal malt flavors for me. Sticky. Some resin, citrus, rye, mosaic. Like dry hopped iced tea. Thick bodied, sticky, medium carbonation.

Pours a dark reddish amber color. Appears to be perfectly transparent, filtered somehow. Really, really nice head on this beer. I don’t really care about appearance, but this head is kinda beautiful. It’s dense and sticky. A solid mass of very fine ecru bubbles that refuse to fade away. There’s a whole sheet of foam sticking to the glass. Retention like whoa. Anywho, Green Flash still has not received the memo that they’re a San Diego brewery and continue to brew thick, malty DIPAs. Crystal malt and rye spice beat out the hop aromas for prime aroma real estate. The blend of Amarillo and Mosaic is quite enjoyable. There’s peach, pine, mango, mint, honeysuckle, orange blossom and candied lemon aromas. I swear I’m not just throwing out random hop descriptors. I will concede that the mix is nice, and the grain flavors are pretty mouthwatering, even if I wish the hops were in the driver’s seat. The crystal malt goes out a bit too much for me in the taste, but otherwise, it’s a similar experience. Lots of rye spice, lots of caramel sweetness, pleasant but toned down hop flavors. Bitterness is pretty subdued and mostly comes out in the somewhat sticky finish, pine resin in your gums. It’s pretty sweet, but it’s well put together and packed with flavor, so I’m not complaining too much. Mouthfeel is thick, particularly for a DIPA. It’s a big mouthful and, as has been emphatically stated for some reason, not something that you’re going to want drink in quantity. Some booze in the finish, not too bad. Green Flash seems to be oddly proficient at making big, malty DIPAs. It’s confusing, but here we are. This is one of the better rye DIPAs that I’ve tried, though it has been awhile since I raised a glass of the heavy hitters in the substyle.

Weird looking 12oz bottle pours a clear, deep amber with some frothy, white head. Nose is very bready, bread crust, toast, some spicy rye, pine, orange, some soap. Flavor is malty, piney, soapy, bread crust, a bit toast, mild grain, mild pepper, orange peel. Spicy, zesty finish. Pretty nice.

Draught @ Mikkeller Bar, San Francisco, CA

Pours dark reddish amber with a foamy white head. Aroma of malts, fresh grassy hops, caramel, toffee and syrup. Taste is sweet, malty and hoppy with loads of caramel, toffee, syrup, rye and grassy hops. Finish is lingering bitter with massive amounts of hops and caramely malts. Pretty heavy malty DIPA.

Bottle. Pours dark reddish brown with off white head. Nose/taste of rye, caramel malt, dank grapefruit, wet grass and citrus peel. Medium body.