I received this beer in a trade with my friend Billy out in Colorado and I have a feeling I’ll be asking for more. This beer was knockout good. My initial impressions were sweet caramel and citrus on the nose with a mild up front and abrasivly in back taste. The title had a nice play on words which I found amusing, but my real point of focus were in fact the hops. Take a look at the varieties used and tell me that is not impressive (not to mention exciting for any hop lover). Chinook, Columbus, Centennial, and Challenger are all higher alpha acid hops that bring the hurt while Cascade, Crystal, and Citra (lower alpha acid percentage) provided the flavor backing in this power-packed beer.
The presentation was pretty typical of a Double/Imperial IPA, however it gravitated towards the lighter side of the malt spectrum producing a “golden” orange glow. The head was fluffy and contained a resinous hoppiness. There were some chucks at the bottom so make sure you decant as you pour.
I do not think this was dry hopped as it lacked a forceful hoppy (POP! BOOM! WOW!) right out the gate. There was a bold burst of citrus hops which wafted up, but this was somewhat muted. Maybe I should have said complimented? As stated before, I like my IPAs on the dryer side with minor malt sweetness. 7 Seas pushed the malt envelop for me ever so slightly. It is a sweeter 2IPA, but not to the point of distracting from the hops (which should be the main focus). Golden Promise did a fine job of hiding the 9% abv and boosting the citrus components of the beer. Smelled like a orange cream soda…sort of. The sweet malts and mellowed hops up front combined to make a juicy aroma and mouthfeel.
One of the best aspects about this beer was that it displayed just about every hop quality in it. Juicy, ripe, honeyed, bitter, pungent, abrasive, piney, resinous, spicy, herbal, floral and citrus to name a few. The overwhelming flavor that seems to come out was that of a tangerine followed by a resinous lemony dimension. During each sip a wave of toasty sweetness primed my taste buds for the supercharged bitter hop bomb at the finish. All these hops seem to have an overlapping citrus quality, but having just sampled a brew that used Citra hops I found myself identifying that hop. This brew has great balance, but enough hops to claim it as an Double IPA.
I tip my hat to Dry Dock for brewing a great product that was fun to drink. It gave insight into the flavors and depths of the 7 Seas.
Grade: A