Hope Brewery F/A-18% Rhino IIIIIPA

F/A-18% Rhino IIIIIPA

 

Hope Brewery in Pokolbin, New South Wales, Australia 🇦🇺

  IPA - Quadruple Regular
Score
6.89
ABV: 18.0% IBU: 150 Ticks: 2
Rare, wild and dangerous. We've called it Rhino, the nickname for the F/A - 18 jets that dominate the Hunter's skyline on very special occasions. It's a massive 18% IPA at the extreme end of brewing with the intensity, flavour and resin to navigate its high altitude ABV, it requires 150+ IBUs to pop rivet it together.
 

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7.8
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 9 | Overall - 8

(Can) Pours slightly hazy amber with small cream coloured dense head. Intense aroma - primarily dank with notes of stone and tropical fruits, and hints of caramel. Great mouthfeel. Full bodied, smooth and slightly sticky with fine bright carbonation. Taste is also intense and a fair bit going on. There’s a backbone of toffee sweetness. At the start there is some brief fruity tang. Dank hops cut in quickly and continue through the palate. The alcohol picks up mid palate and gives a distinct spirit like burn towards the end of the palate. There’s a mildly bitter, dank and alcohol burn long finish. Wow! What a beer. Not for the faint hearted. It all fits together weirdly well. Really enjoying it, and expect it may take a while to finish. Will be interesting to see how the flavours evolve as it warms up.

Tried from Can on 24 May 2025 at 13:27


6.6
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

From a 375ml can on 10/6/2019. Pours a slightly opaque deep golden with a big head which disappears fairly quickly. The nose is sharp, dank and pungent, with lots of ripe tropical and stone fruit, and more than a whiff of booze. In the mouth it's super sweet, with masses of pineapple, mango and passionfruit, and super boozy, with a resiny bitterness prominent, along with a dash of warming alcohol burn. Dank, super intense and over the top. The 18% is no surprise, but that said, it's actually reasonably approachable if definitely a very slow sipper (the can took me about an hour and a half). The palate is syrupy and the carbonation moderate. All up, I think it's a partially successful experiment. An 18% IIPA really has no right to be drinkable, but this actually goes down pretty well. That said, there are enough faults and rough edges to prevent this from really impressing. Still, worth a try for novelty value if nothing else.

Tried from Can on 10 Jun 2019 at 04:35