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.

Small draught glass at O’Briens on 3/23/2007
Served blind to begin with, I would probably have been kept guessing all night. When finally told what I was drinking, I was quite surprised. This is 9.5%abv? Wow.
Not a very dark imperial stout, with plenty of hickory-auburn hues apparent on the edges and a dark, milk chocolate brown-colored body. Medium-tan head is medium-sized and well-retained, leaving minimal lacing. Medium clarity.
Seemingly simple nose opens with licorice tinted Spanish coffee notes, which seemlessly slip in to a pool of milk chocolate. Floating about in the aroma are prunes and raisins that give complexity and definition to the style. But what is confounding are the rather light-hearted esters that sit about on the finish, as the malt trails off and leaves fruitiness in full force (lots of cherry-vanilla interplay). Some toffee sweetness hangs around and there are traces of nuts and light roast, but it’s a very light example, though by no means weak. Hops add bitterness, which emerges on the finish, especially with warming, but otherwise lend little influence, perhaps a touch of pine and mint-like aromatics. Not quite devoid of char and deep roast, there is a speck of it on the finish. No alcohol apparency in the nose. The only negative aspect I found was a bit of peanut/peanut-skin-like aroma.
Soft, luxurious, silky body is both supple and yet light (for the style) on the palate. Great attenuation up front, allows anise and vinous notes to display themselves briefly, before a moderate coffee-liqueur-like dryness and fudgey-chocolate sweetness engage. What it produces on the finish, seems to have the aspects of both sweet, pale and caramel malts (with plenty of chocolate) but also a brace of dryness with vanilla and light alcohol warmth. Roast is quite reserved, as in the aroma, with only basic coffee flavors that seem to stay mostly out of the way of the chocolate. A fudgey stickiness persists on the finish, despite the flavor not lingering all that long. Medium carbonation, helps keep it on the lighter side and keeps the malt sugars from becoming too overbearing (the beer finishes on the sweet side of things, for sure). Hops add a light green juiciness, minimal bitterness for the style. Very low alcohol apparency, as mentioned before. What a weird (but enjoyable) Imperial Stout!

Draft. Ruby/mahogony beer with an off-white head. Wheat aroma with some caramel. Chocolate, berry fruit with caramel and wheat flavors. Medium body. Lingering berry/wheat. Rich flavor.

Draft at the Bistro DIPA Fest; Citrus hop nose; Slightly hazed amber with a medium white head; flavor of citrus hop bitterness. One of my least favorites from the Fest!

An orange beer with a small off-white head. The aroma is quite acidic with notes of lemon and grapes. While the flavor is sweet and very malt with a subdued spicyness. I’m intrigued by the difference from aroma to flavor.