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Russian River, Pliny the Elder, 8% abv Double IPA

Old ass Pliny

Geriatric Pliny, "For real dog, you ode." - Soulja Boy

Pliny the Elder, Double IPA, 8% ABV

A: This has a hazy straw appearance with tiny bubbles that dance and capitulate times past. It has moderate lacing but that special carbonation that recollects Hello Kitty perfume and locks on diaries. A certain friendliness is embued in its loving gold appearance. It is not 24k in nature, but its adjuncts result in a harder, less malleable experience.

S: There, of course, how could I forget, exists, smells of grapefruit, pine, lemon rind, and citric comma overuse. After so many dates and crestfallen experiences, the number of the Elder becomes a solid staple in your phone, even those moments of weakness, at 2 a.m., when you could just go to sleep, his elderly voice beckons, imparting amazing grassy knowledge.

T: A single taste is like dipping your toe into the river of styx and viewing the scope of past accomplishments and future failures. You get strong notes of tangelo, then apricot, some grapefruit rounds it out with a gentle lull into a juniper bush. You brush a few cones from his threadbare skin and embrace your elder lovingly.

M: The mouthfeel is light but imparts a tart lasting wisdom that lingers an herbal dryness that expands with time. It feels like wading through thick grassy kudzu with a celerity that imparts a lasting knowledge. How you wish you could order more, or warn your old friend of the looming danger that Pompeii holds. Hindsight is 20/20 and such is the case with your elder. Goldfish crackers strewn about your apartment are a testament to same.

D: This is incredibly drinkable beer and your hold on the hem of his robe is none the less tenacious at the final imparting words. You swallow deep and know that your friend will visit you under any circumstances but this apparition must be seen in moderation, for his message is almost always rationed. Not unlike Ebeneer Scrooge your Bob Cratchet fades into the abyss, until the next bottle is cracked. His spirit invoked anew.

Narrative: You shake from your dream in a moist pallor. It seemed so real at the time. You look left and right and see relics of lost friends strewn left and right. /get yearbook. You feel compelled to revisit the past anew. /view photo albums. You feel almost compelled by a higher force to keep returning to these fading memories of grapefruit orchards. /Stop nostalgia. Try as you might you cannot forget the times spent dri- /seriously stop, do something else. You elect to rummage through old shoe boxes that waft of herbal succor. /C:close program.exe

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Heretic, The Alchemist, Double IPA, More Offensive than Dr. Pepper 10 Commercials

Heretic The Alchemy needs to Convery this to Hop Gold

Heretics, Converting Double IPAs to Bitter Barleywines, without a Eucharist.

Heretic, Double IPA, 9.99% ABV, The Alchemist

Ok so, I will make this a nice concise little freeform endeavor because this doesn’t warrant some Birth of a Nation pre-amble.

This beer is disappointing, as a DIPA, as a Barleywine. Just all in all it comes out the bottle all piney and grassy, not giving a shit. Honey badger in a bottle.

It is even more sadder(er) because of the story behind it. This was one of 700 bottles saved from the flood that destroyed the Alchemist brewery when that asshole Irene hurricane gave all the Vermont vegans an unnecessary bath. I was expecting that Heady Topper gold. This is some pinecone pyrite. It’s all malty and pissed off. Furthermore, it is rare, so rarity always boosts the taste right? Not this time. This tastes eerily like Hoptimum from Sierra Nevada or one of those super stemmy IPAs.

No stems no seeds no sticks.

After I tried it my face was all like this:

nooooo

Bad Hops are Bad

So sure, I had some regrets, I was not unlike Kanye’s illustrious girl, oh wait, what should I have ordered?

fish fillet. not McHopswich.

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3 Floyd’s Arctic Panzer Wolf, Imperial IPA, 9% abv

Arctic Panzer, OH OLD LABEL STATUS.

Arctic Panzer Wolf, Three Floyds, imperial IPA 9% abv

A: Very transparent thin yellow almost lager color, good carbonation and lots of sticky lacing. Middle carbonation throughout. There’s no cool way to say this, but, it is a very…pretty…beer…like it looks hella tight with the golden hue and sick bubbles, yeah.

S: holy citrus bomb, you get a huge bouquet of pineapple, apricot, and a bit of a melon smell from the hops. Remiscient of a brighter pliny with more citrus and no herbal aspects

T: Strangely the huge citrus notes arent as present on the palate but that doesn’t mean that this is a flawed beer, just got the old hopes up a bit too high with the amazing smell. It has a fast clean finish with no linger hop dryness, just a sweet juicy hop profile that is incredibly smoothe. If this is an imperial IPA, you would never know it. No alcoholic heat and it drinks like a single IPA.

M: Great frothiness, nice middle ground of coating and bubbly crispness. It has this “just out of the shower IPA” sort of feel to it that is hard to find in beers this big. It is a good thing that this isn’t readily available on the west coast because I could see beach disasters with a beer this refreshing maintaining its stealthy abv.

D: This is gonna get a solid 5/5 on this aspect. The drinakbility is scary, a bomber of this evaporates incredibly quickly. I would be interested to try this on tap to see if it is consistently this drinkable. Notwithstanding, one bomber will not be enough, 2 may be too few as well. Go to Indiana and stock up I guess because you will burn through quantities of this beer incredibly quickly.

Narrative: The hop strain was too powerful and OPEC knew it. Their days of limitless control were over once the hop oil shieks took control. “And the rancid odor SHALL FILL THE STREETS OF THE PACIFIC NORTH WEST!” the new dictators boomed emphatically from their Oregon and Canadian mounts. After the hop profiles were discovered, nothing else was left aside from destitute desert life. At least, no one had to live in Indiana any more. The masses sigh a huge breath of relief and brows were wiped universally. “AND TODAY, THIS CAR MAY RUN ON HOP OIL, BUT NOT A SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD WAS SPILLED LIVING IN THE TURBULENT MIDWEST.” The crowd cheered triumphantly, knowing what a huge obstacle they had overcome.

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Victory Storm King, 9.1% abv; Crown King Nothing

The King of Drizzles

King is Loose Term for Storms

Victory Storm King Stout, Imperial Stout 9.1% abv

A: This has a slightly watery deep blackness to it, like the thin ink of a Pentel pen. The carbonation is outrageous. I mean that in the classic sense, inclining one towards outrage. It creates a huge 5” head that just maintains like mocha whipped cream. The lacing looks like a perverse Rorschart painting. It is a very attractive stout, for those so inclined.

 

S: The nose is a bit thin and doesn’t present much beyond a sweetness and a candied malt. I get a bit of a burnt vanilla and….that’s about it. T: There’s a bit of chocolate at the outset that gets very herbal very quickly. This feels far more like the Black DIPAs coming into vogue than the traditional stouts that I have come to grow and love. The taste finishes with a deep piney bitterness that is more like Hopsicle but with chocolate malts. I don’t know how this was classified as an imperial stout, but, variety is the spice of life, so says my Home Ec…er…”Teen Living” teacher.

 

M: Again, this doesn’t coat like a stout, nor does it present a big frothiness. It has a thin mouthfeel with a big hop body to it, if I didn’t know better, I would say that this tastes like a messed up DIPA that has a ton of high alpha acid hops. But, I guess I would welcome innovation over and above the same damn dancer/boxer/football team movie year in and year out. At least I have something to tell my children with this one, a good old epic tale about the old Imperial Stout/IPA that I enjoyed on a weeknight. Ah, memories.

 

D: This isn’t exceptionally drinkable. It is too bitter and doesn’t present all those Preggo delights that I enjoy: where’s my chocolate and deep smoky malts. To be clear, only negligent expecting mothers should drink this, if at all. Wait, ok, to be clear, this is a confusing malty hoppy bomb that belongs in that confusing penumbra category of Black IPA madness. Notwithstanding, it is welcome in my mouth. It’s hard to end on that but, oh well.

 

Narrative: “I need to get my Wiz Khalifa on, aint tryna be coding .DLLs all up in this shit,” Walter Lee protested voraciously from his cubicle. “They always posting on me tryna front on some spaghetti code ass bullshit, acting like I haven’t seen a debugged kernel up in this bitch.” His supervisor shook his head at the recalcitrant associate and tapped his red pen lightly against his clip board. This wasn’t the first computer coding job that Walter had been fired from. Admittedly, it was Neoscript’s own fault for hiring on a latent racist basis assuming that Walter Lee would be a successful coder. “I see dems, they post all up on this cubicle like they OWN ME. I post up on my set, peep this OH WHO JUST SET UP A BEOWOLF CLUSTER? Oh shit, that’s right, Walter. Ha haaaay!” the resonant call not unlike Jadakiss’s patent sound clipped against the aluminum ceilings. This was a clear case of a mismatch. This was someone who was ill-equipped to fight in the market in which he was competing, despite his inherent merit. “watch, watch, someone gonna write about this situation and be STRAIGHT RACIST!” Walter uttered from his Ukranian lips.

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Russian River Blind Pig IPA, 6.1% abv

Disable Pigs

Disabled Swine and OSHA Rules

Blind Pig IPA, 6.1% IPA

A: Thin yellow gold color similar to a watered down apple juice with awesome
lacing and carbonation, transparent with no middle carbonation. It’s a solid set of
Tim Allen stand-up that you grow to love.

S: Huge bouquet upon opening the bottle, great pine and grassy notes, not as
much citrus as the Pliny brethren, but smoother and less aggressive. The gentle, back massage
sort of game you expect from Bay Area kids.

T: The taste is crisp and light with a swift hop body the imparts its flavor, finishes
with a mild bittering and washes away clean. Great session beer and the ABV is a bonus.
There are some mild melon and lemon notes but predominately floral and grassy hops. A mint is left on your pillow lovingly by this pig.

M: Very light and crisp with a clean finish. It feels like the swift nimble ninja of IPAs.
It doesn’t impart a huge malty body but the bottle disappears staggeringly fast. The hops and
coating doesn’t linger or resonate for a long period of time but it is still satifying.

D: This beer is probably the most drinkable IPA that I have ever had. A great session beer
to be sure and the body and light malts make it refreshingly addictive. The fact that they
do not sell these in 6 and 12 packs is almost intentional malfeasance. I can’t really see
myself only buying one bottle of these given the price and drink ability of the bottle. The
16.9oz bottle is another strangely enticing aspect. All in all, I would with hubris and the
utmost respect play deferential beer pong with this beer due to its incredibly versatile light
character.

Narrative: “Ah not another stupid Kevin James movie!” the children bemoaned in unison.
To be fair, 11 years old is far too along in years to enjoy a three act train wreck of that
magnitude. The babysitter chortled and guffawed a bit in protest, shaking his sleekly shaven
face. “If Mall Cop is not the movie you start, what is it your disdain for this Paul Blart?”
The kids perked up at the dapper disabled pig addressing them so casuistically. “Perhaps you
harbor dislike from seeing Bewitched, well enjoy Will Smith and this movie Hitch” the dvd
slid across the coffee table and Mr. Pig adroitly knocked it into the tray. He appeared
overdressed at each of his assignments and, being blind, was hardly the pig for the job,
yet somehow his panache and particular sense of aplomb put parents at ease. “I know you
tire of little kid stuff, here’s flatulence jokes in this movie Grown Ups!” The children
two stepped in syncopation loving their blind caretaker and tugging at the tails of his
tuxedo lovingly