Imperial IPA
Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - Imperial / Double Rotating Out of Production|
Score
7.93
|
|
Traditionally, there are a lot of rules when it comes to brewing great beer. The fact that American craft brewers have broken those rules to produce some of the world’s finest beers is downright heroic. At Goose Island we live and die by hops, so breaking the rules meant pushing the hop limit to the extreme to create this monster Imperial IPA. We took three of our favorite hops, TETTNANG, SIMCOE, and CASCADE, and balanced their spiciness with tons of malt. Them we went back and dumped in MORE HOPS and more malt until this beer was exploding with flavor...strong enough to wake the dead and filled with more bitterness than a woman scorned. This Imperial IPA is absolutely gigantic, you’ll smell the hops from about a yard away. What will surprise you is how incredibly drinkable it is. Pair it up with the saltiest blue cheese you can find, and go nuts.
Sign up to add a tick or review
9.2/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 10
Overall 9
2003 or 2004 bottle (not sure). Awesome ruby-amber hazy/glucose like appearance. Simply lovely looking and smelling. Plenty of ripe red fruits, some light citrus, plenty of spicey hops (chinooks for sure). Good off-white head. Flavor is full and spicy. Lightly chewy fruit esters, some nice subtle malting and plenty of bittersweet hops. Reminds me of Hop Wallop, but has more body and tastes fresher. A good amount of acidity on the finish, as expected and just pure hops flavor goodness. Thanks Ed (eddieg) for the trade.
Tried
from Bottle
on 06 Mar 2004
at 11:18
7.8/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottled, unlabeled from the brewery, 8 Feb ’04 Hoppy, hoppy bo boppy... no, wait a minute. An amazing and massively hoppy brew. I don’t catch the citrus the others have noticed, but maybe I’ve been through too many beers already. Lighter brown color than normal for an IPA, but that doesn’t belie a big malt profile. That’s all I got from a wild night of tasting at the Goose’s Fulton St. brewery, but I got some bottles as a souvenir, so I can submit another rating later.
Draft at Goose Island, 6/28/04. A massive sock of Simcoe & Cascade hops grabs you by the throat for the entire glass. The 79 IBU’s seem to dedicated to nothing but bitterness. Enjoying this monster is a challenge, but one which I’ll gladly accept.
Draft at Goose Island, 6/28/04. A massive sock of Simcoe & Cascade hops grabs you by the throat for the entire glass. The 79 IBU’s seem to dedicated to nothing but bitterness. Enjoying this monster is a challenge, but one which I’ll gladly accept.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Feb 2004
at 09:39
8.9/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 9
Flavor 9
Texture 10
Overall 9.5
Grassy and citric hops dominate the nose. Lime, grapefruit rind. Fresh biscuits too. Very smooth, although it has a big prickly palate from all the resins, and slight stickiness from the malt. Grapefruit rind is a big factor here, along with a big long bitter finish. Malt flavors are fresh and clean, but are clearly gasping for their voice beneath the hops. On the whole an absolutely top-notch double IPA, with all the hops AND malt one could want. They’re not lying, it is very drinkable. Pale amber with a smallish head and medium lacing.
Tried
on 05 Jan 2004
at 11:40