Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 7

Mostly clear deep amber and copper coloured body with a thinnish, single centimetre tall off-white head that caps the beer nicely with some good effervescence down below and an almost fuzzy glow of nice amber - beautiful! Aroma of apples, pears, light metal, a good deal of astringency, some relatively strong alcohol and sugars, too - seemingly deep. Full-bodied; Very deep, syrupy and resinous piney and strong hop notes hit at first with a big malt backbone to support and a lot of both alcohol and sugars here, but the bitterness from the hops really defines this in a good, old school type of way. Aftertaste shows a lot of pungency throughout, with the pine sap, flowers, grass, resin and especially syrup with a lot of bitterness from the alpha acids here, but a ton of sweetness, not quite at the cloying level, but close. Overall, a nice, super rich and pungent older school Imperial IPA that clearly shows it's Imperial Status, but a smooth malt quality that helps out this very large format. Nice to sample, but too strong throughout - not super hard to drink, but not very easy, either! Worth trying only if you can find it for a deal or if you like the style! Nice to have locally and fresh, but no more of this for me! I sampled this sixteen ounce (way too big for this), pint-sized can, purchased from Costco in Arlington (Pentagon City), Virginia on 23-September-2022 for US$12,49/four pack, sampled at my house here in Washington, just a few blocks away on 03-October-2022.