It was Christmas Eve when I opened this hop bomb of a beer. The snow was falling, creating a pure white blanket outside my window as afternoon progressed. Being that it was the time for giving I decided to gift myself with a little holiday beer. The decorative paper on its stubby cork and cage green bottle was a delight to unwrap. I paused to read the label and admire the hop bandit – pretty sure I caught him mid caper. Then it hit me…1000 IBUs! “Am I even ready for this?” I’ve had IPAs in the 100+ IBU range, but this is enormous, practically overkill. It was too late…the bottle was open.

Pouring into the new tulip glass I had then recently acquired, it produced a hazy caramel/brown hue. While cloudy there was no hop bits floating or sediment that I could tell. There was an element of orange hues on the edges and the head gradually formed a tan creaminess that left lacing.

The aroma is crazy intense! Not sure what hops are used but high alpha acids are ever present. Simcoe, Warrior, Nugget, Columbus, Galena might be my guess as to a few varieties used. Interestingly enough, this beer is not as citrus as one might expect. It also had a billowing floral nose that smelled of…well, fresh flowers. The citrus qualities were there, but in a rather sour/perfume dimension. Grapefruit, lime, lemon, mango, pineapple were the more noticeable scents. The malt helped to heighten the floral hop notes as the sweet caramel, grape-like, honey characteristics came through just fine. It has a similar nose to the Terrapin/DeProef collaboration Red Monter. Resinous, piney, woody, herbal, earthy, some spiciness…just about every hop quality is present.

The taste = holy hops! A pronounces resinous, sticky, and oily the entire way through the each sip. The front part is actually sweeter due to the malt, but as I inhaled before the sips a wave of hops aided in bringing their effect on my palate quickly. The ABV plays a part in making it a little hot creating a heavy mess of hops on the roof of my mouth. A grainy character imparts a grape flavor in the middle part of the beer, which gives way to a more telling array of bitterness. My taste buds were subjected to the green flower’s magic at the finish. The aftertaste is floral, yet the ABV and rich malts gave it a barleywine-esque feature. There was also some leather thrown in there somewhere (as a side note).

If you can find a bottle…buy it. I’d suggest giving it a try. Go in on a bottle with your friends and share it as an interesting experiment for your taste buds. Maybe cellar a bottle and see what happens? As a point of reference, this was similar to Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA minus the clean finish.