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One of the nice thing about attending the Brewmasters’ Dinner at the Oregon Brewers Festiva – aside from meeting the owners and brewmasters of some of the coolest breweries – was the beers there to try. Many of the brewers brought out their biggest/best stuff to show off to the other brewmasters in attendance. A lot of the beers were Imperial IPAs and stouts. Several people also commented on all of the sour beers this year, as they seem to be growing in popularity. I’m not sure if this Dry Hopped Imperial IPA was the same as their Tricerahops Double IPA, but that one has 100 IBUs and is 8.8% ABV.
This one had a dark copper color when it was served, and a decent creamy head with soap-like bubbles. It had an obvious hop aroma which was a bit grassy and citrusy – definitely another brew taking advantage of the local northwest hops.
When I first took a drink, it seemed to be a bit creamy and have a good medium malty body. However, that was quickly followed by a big citrusy hop flavor. The hop flavor was a bit more intense in the aftertaste with more citrusy, grassy, and piney hop flavors coming thought. While the hop flavor was there, it did seem to be pretty nicely balanced with a good malt body.
Much like other Imperial IPAs I’ve reviewed, it’s hard to pair these with food, because you just want to soak in the hop flavor. However, you really don’t want to drink an Imperial IPA on an empty stomach. So, if I did have to pair this with a food, I think I would go with some good pub fare – burger and fries or a good brick oven pizza – mostly to cleanse the palate between hop bursts.
I’m a big fan of Imperial IPAs, so I obviously enjoyed this beer, overall, it was pretty good. With a nice malt backbone and great fresh hop flavors, its great to have some of these IPAs in the middle of hop country.
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