From Frisco, Colorado comes this
IPA that I balked at when it was first suggested by Jeremy, the proprietor of
City Sliquors (unpaid link - I just like them). I mean, it's not that all Imperial IPAs are bad, but I normally find them so imposing and unapproachable that I shy away from them. It's not that I can't enjoy a complex or mature beer, but I really have to be in the mood, and I'm not sure that I am. Will that change the outcome of the review? Who knows?

The yellow beer has enough gold to almost turn it amber, but it doesn't quite get there. There isn't much of a head, and I noticed the same thing with the other growler I got, so it may have more to do with the growler fill system than anything (this one overfilled with head when being bottled, but now it's very controllable). The aroma is significant, and it sports yeast, musty spice, grain, and straw. That is very malt-heavy for an IPA.
First sip is, indeed, aggressive. It has orange, tangerine, grapefruit, and starfruit rinds in a haze of powdered yeast and straw; I don't want to sip this. It's too much and it's too little. It's too many flavors and too little smoothness. Instead, it bites at the tongue as if the tongue has offended it in some way. Let's see if the sip makes things better.
Tip-in is very little carbonation anything under flat orange and grapefruit rinds with straw and grains. The middle is the rise of pine and twigs while earth lingers under a pile of fruit peels. The finish is a sprightly flash of pine with the scrape of acidity before a grainy-yeast trail off.
Bottom Line: The reinforces my thoughts on Imperial IPAs. They are good, but they are not great.
2.0/5