Jimmack Invitational’07, shared by lou18, thanks I really did not think i would get a chance to try this. Color is lightly murky golden. Aroma is very grassy-green Belgian yeastiness. Taste is a bit more traditional straight Belgian sweet yeastiness. Still has a lot of herbal-grassy flavors though. No brett at all, no sour, no funk.

On tap at Carlsbad location and then from growler a week and a half later. Pours super deep amber with light brown head. They served it up pretty darn cold. The aroma is light giving forth only burnt malts, chocolate malts and mild sweetness. The mouth feel is medium and the immediate flavor is sweet malts. Then chocolate malts and burnt malts join in creating sweet burnt dark chocolate. There’s also notes of caramel mixed with faint molasses too. The finish also has a noticeable hop bitterness that is out of place for the overall experience.

Draft. Ruby beer with a light tan head. Complex malt (roast, chocolate, caramel) and grapefruit aroma. Slightly roasty, rich caramel flavor with lots of piney, grapefruit hops. Alcohol noticeable. Lingering grapefruit, pine hops moving to a bit of alcohol. Nice complexity. Fuller bodied.

Draught samples at ABF on 6/16/07
Softly hazed, rather pale-golden IPA, good to see that, with a frothy white head that recedes to cover and leaves moderate lacing.
Hop spiciness lies underneath a strong white grapefruit and dry pine nose, with pale malts asserting light balance at best, though not sweetening things too much so. Very zesty, moderately bitter and robust, despite the fact that the malts are not surging forth and the hops are very dry. Citrus and various yellow fruit notes linger on the finish. Medium high strength of aroma and quite sniffable, but a good deal of bitterness is sensed on the end and it slightly overwhelms with bitterness, cutting down on the complexity/depth of the nose.
Citrus and pine cut straight for the palate, burning somewhat, with a rather large acidity. Malts provide ample texture and never get in the way, while the carbonation is tight and the consistency nearly creamy. Lychee, hickory nut skin, pear and peach notes and a grand finale of very zesty white grapefruit and strong leafiness, all assert that this beer is hops, hops and more hops. That’s fine, but I question the balance/drinkability of these such beers, as always. Way too much bitterness to be truly enjoyable, in my opinion. If they’d tone that down, it would be outstanding on account of its firm texture and high level of dryness. No alcohol/flaws noted.

(Hand bottle 33 cl) Courtesy of Bierkönig. Clear, orangey brown with a creamy, off-white head. Lightly vinous aroma, some nuts and alcohol. Medium body, some banana and caramel, a whiff of yeast and an - for the style - unusual bitterness. Some alcohol presence in the finish. 150607

Hand bottled, thanks cquiroga! Clear golden. Concentrated hop aroma of sweaty lychees. Sweet with some solid biscuit malt underneath an abundance of perfumy aromatic soapy lychee-like hops. Lingering very bitter finish. The hops are almost assaulting, but in a pleasant way. After some initial hesitation I give in and just love this beer.

Hand bottled, thanks cquiroga! Lightly hazy very dark brown. Aroma of fried banana. Very sweet and very malty. Like a Chinese desert complete with the fried banana covered in syrup. Full flavoured and full bodied. A bit sweet for me, but an unusual and tasty beer.

Draught pint at PP Carlsbad on 3/25/07
Lucid, slightly-bronzed pineapple colored body has a small, dense white head atop it and shows medium-high clarity, with moderate haziness and strong carbonation. Sticky lace is left behind as the beer recedes.
A big WHAP of hops hits the nose, somewhat juicy and with tropical fruit essences, but just intensely dry, piney and citric behind that. It’s fresh, very bold and sniffable, but the sweet caramel is held in check by the rye notes, which add some breadiness, light spice and pepper notes and the overall effect that the malt isnt really as balancing as it turns out to be in the flavor. Replete with yellow fruits (peach, nectarine, apricot, pineapple, mango), which forcefully come out upon warming, it tends to sweeten with warming as more of the base malt gradually oozes out. Light acidity/breadiness on the end, with strong grapefruit punchiness lingering, though some of the lively fruitiness lingers as well. Love the freshness and vibrancy of the hops in all of Pizza Port’s beers, but sometimes it’s just way too much, as I thought here. Alcohol is noticeable on the finish, lightly.
Before the palate can really take in any malt notes, it’s confronted by strong pine-wintergreen and fruity (but very bitter) grapefruit. Pale and light medium malt sweetness seems to flare up for a second, adding a barage of sugars that further disorients the palate, but the rye dryness (almost a vague nuttiness) calms things down a bit and provides a fairly chewy texture for some of the bitterness/sweetness to sink in to. But the hop power is never really controlled and a burning acidity, matched with some alcohol dryness/heat makes it quite punishing on the end, as you get in to the glass. Warming/breathing dosent seem to do anything for it, as the alcohol just emerges more sharply on the end, and the malt sugars get slightly syrupy. Just too raw and over-the-top, I thought, despite the fact that the individual flavors were pretty enjoyable. I actually preferred this quite chilled, and while the carbonation was still quite tight at the start of the glass. Difficult to drink much of it.

Draught pint at PP Carlsbad on 3/25/07, from Cquiroga’s glass.
Dark chestnut brown but with a definite tan-orange tint to it that lightens it somewhat. Also a hint of auburn on the edges. Medium-high clarity, definite chill-haze and a beige head that is small but well retained atop.
Hoppy nose wastes no time in exposing plenty of C-hop fruitiness. Citrus and a softer hint of light floral aromatics, it definitely adds a good deal of juicy hoppiness without killing you with bitterness. The hops slowly yield to a slightly hard chocolate and honey note that you might call graham crackers. A slight touch of coffee/mild roast and then plenty of base malt sweetness smooths things on the finish, where the hops return to add a bit more dryness and bitterness than they do at first. Fruitiness still hangs in there, with no alcohol apparent and some caramel and breadiness building up somewhat.
Hoppy and dry up front, it has a fairly high attenuation, exposing some dry, crusty/toasty medium malts that show more hardness at first than I think a beer as hoppy as this needs. Leafy, dry, bitter hop oils are quite strong, with grapefruit and orange flavors piling on quickly. Creamy-sweet base malts finally arrive, a bit late, with coffee notes and caramel as well. Great carbonation, as I’ve now come to expect, really helps mitigate some of the balance issues, as it gives a fairly creamy consistency that helps highlight the malt softness (which would be too stretched out, otherwise). Still, a bit too hoppy and bitter for me, without much hop complexity. Just a rather straightforward citrus combo. Not that it’s too twangy, and I do appreciate the juiciness in the aroma, but it’s just more of the same ole’ thang.