Bottle version:Medium gold with large scarce bead. Grainy corn nose. Biting foretaste with long hop finish

A lighter version of the pale, but still exceptional........................

long lasting head.. Roasted malt nose. Burnt choc malt taste. Not many hops for this brewery. Great lace

cloudy amber with dense tan head.Small bead. Faintly fruity hop nose. Well hopped but well balanced. Lots of carbonation. Great stuff

2021 release: As noted below, in 2006, I haven't been keeping notes on this beer though I do drink it every year. I've been hearing yet again that its sweeter, more malt forward than previous years, but I gotta say, my notes, mental or written, do not bear this out. This has always been a 80s/90s style American ale, full of the classic C-hop citrus and pine notes, and a fullish malt body charged with crystal malt. It was never a west coast IPA, and we shouldn't pretend it was. 2006 Beer: I apparently haven’t made a habit of making notes across years, but I wanted to make a note this year, as other have noted, the hops seem just a tad a muted this year. On the whole though, I like it like that, it seems more balanced to me. There also seems to be no lack of finishing bitterness. Lastly, I noted a sweaty/cheesy element that I might attribute to stale hops, which could account for the reduction in finishing hop character. 2002 Beer: Alot more hop bitterness than before, but the hop aromatics and flavors seem muted by the bitterness. Sweet round malt up front works, but is quickly overpowered by the bitterness. No subtlety, just a large bitter hammer. No more hint at lemon rind or citrus, no layers of hop flavor other than intense resin. I wonder if they’ve not been influenced by the recent wave of Imperial IPA’s and their whopping 100 IBU’s. Numbers are going down this year. Appearance is fine: bright amber, hazy, extra large stiff creamy head. 2001: Its all here this year. Nice reddish tinted gold color, with large rocky almost creamy head that holds together forever, and thick lace in the glass. There is a sweetish caramel malt presence in this beer, but its damned hard to pay any attention to it, because this beer is all about hops. Aroma blasts you with spicy citrusy hops, and the flavor is tingly all over the mouth, with notes of grapefruit, pepper, and lemon zest, with a bitterness that is somewhat like you’d expect from chewing on a lemon rind. Outside of the hop flavor, this beer actually isn’t really bitter. Its very well balanced in that department, actually. 2000 brewing: This as always remains a world-class IPA. Nicely bitter, but its the hop flavor and aroma that really make this one fun. The malt is firmly present and keeps a nice balance.

Those hops really smack you in the face, wow! This is very complex and malty. It''s almost as good as Victory Hop Devil. It tastes very similar, but with the hop factor magnified.

Updated: Copper gold copper, huge white creamy head, which left an inch high dollop in the bottom of the glass when I had finished. Light malty and musty aroma, with some fruitiness and a tingle of citric hops. Flavor was light and balanced, with a touch of light fruity malt and tingly hops. Creamy malt palate. Not as great as I remember it, but still a pretty good beer, and one of the best with such a wide distribution.