6.9

Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 6 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6.5

Mostly clear deep copper and beautiful bronze coloured body with a nice three centimetre tall tan and creamy beige head that's microfoamed and stays afloat nicely above the 15 per cent opaque body. Aroma of syrup, resin, grapefruit, pine and some deep biscuity and grainy malts that seem just as strong as the pungent hops, in the nose, with a deep honey and stone fruit scent at the end. Medium to Full-bodied; Strong rich honey and apricot notes show at first with a big hop bitterness from the alpha acids, but a stronger bite from the alcohol and strong astringency that shows a big burn at the end. Aftertaste is deep and rich with a bunch of malts and a pungent apricot stone fruit flavour, but the syrup, resin, pine and grapefruit notes somehow show stronger and deeper, especially at the end. Overall, a very deep, pungent and especially robust IPA that shows Imperial Status from the strong sweetness and especially the assertive astringency and alcohol notes that might even seem higher than 10 per cent ABV, so this isn't hiding anything. Nice to have locally from two nice breweries - but this is too robust and strong in this format for me (16 ounces!). I sampled this sixteen ounce, pint-sized can, purchased from The Perfect Pour in Elkridge, Maryland on 25-October-2022 for US$4,99, canned on 25-April-2022 with the tagline 'Shocker' on the bottom of the can, and sampled at my house here in Washington on 22-December-2022.