22 oz. bottle, pours a cloudy orange amber with a small off-white head. Aroma is quite tropical fruity, with citrus hops, lots of caramel syrup, and oranges. Flavour of orange peel, grapefuit, tropical fruits, syrupy notes and finally finishing on a slightly bitter hop note. A little bit cloying in sweetness but it's alright overall. Decent.

Dark brown, a bit cloudy and with a thin head. Lightly smokey nose, with tart/charry notes that I don’t like. Good (I am a smoke whore, after all), but quite a few areas need improvement. The smoke is a bit different, and I like that, but the weak malt character does nothing to make this beer better.

Bottle. Black with a light tan head that’s never less than a coat. Mocha aroma with some singed toffee. Sweet with mocha and Indian fudge, cardamon, vanilla, light smoke. Gentle bitterness and a touch of sourness at the end, but there’s something (oranges?) slightly distracting about the hops there too. But it’s complex without being at all shouty.

Location: 12 oz bottle from State Line, 3/24/12

Aroma: Somewhat disappointingly faint, fruity notes, spice, light caramel, and a touch of floral hops
Appearance: It pours a mostly clear orange color with a white head and some scattered lacing
Flavor: The taste is a little stronger, some solid balance, floral and grass, light fruit, and a bitter close
Palate: The mouthfeel is decent, but something about it (to me) felt just a ting off, it finishes fairly dry
Overall Impression: I wanted to like this one more then I did. Then, I wanted to give them a high score just to kiss their ass, but I'm kind of a crappy ass kisser (just ask pretty much any boss I've ever had). Anyway, this was not a great IIPA. I didn't hate it by any means, but it wasn't the best example of the style either.

Bottle. Hazy amber with a large off-white head. Aroma of caramel, light biscuit, mild grapefruit and pine. Very sweet with some chocolate as well as toffee and peaches, modest bitterness with grapefruit and some spices. Not really the flavour profile I’d expect from an American IIPA, but that’s not a drawback as such in my book: there’s some charm in the malty body and it’s harmonious.

Hazy deep copper coloured body with an amber glow and hints of orange with a thick, rich tan head. Aroma of grapefruity hops with a lot of resin and oranges and a touch of sweetness - strong. Full-bodied; Chewy hop flavour at first with a lot of malt and carbonation but a relatively mild centre and a grapefruity and grassy hoppy flavour that shows off at the end. Aftertaste shows mostly a pungent grassy and herbal hop flavour with not too much malt and a bittering, almost tropical finish. Overall, a nice beer - more of a traditional IPA, but it’s better this way - a lot of hops and a lot of herbal and grassy bitterness, nice! I sampled this twelve ounce bottle purchased from Total Wine in Tustin, California on 03-February-2012 for US$1.99 sampled at home in Washington on the Ides of March, 15-March-2012. This bottle shows 7.75% abv with a Total Wine date on bottle of 25-January-2012.

Not a particularly good example of the style. This is much more malty than I would expect from an IPA, much less a double IPA. The roasted malt flavor predominates and there’s really not much hop flavor to compensate. Pours a fairly cloudy, darker brown with mid-sized head. Aromas and flavor are given over to a sweetish, roasted malt, with very little of the expected citrus and piney bitterness.

Coconut milk nose, subtle pineapple hints. Clear amber, thin head. Fairly pronounced flavor of imitation vanilla, cardboard, lemon. The vanilla is pervasive and out of place, as I expected. I mustered all the objectivity I could, as I always do, but vanilla doesn’t appear to have a place in a pale ale, let alone a golden ale. Someone prove me wrong.

Pours clear brown color with tan head. Roasted malt aroma with moderate smokiness and some chocolate. Moderate smoke and roasted malt flavors with a hint of chocolate. Medium body with soft carbonation and a creamy mouthfeel. Better than I was expecting.