Hopfetti

This beer pours a beautiful deep golden color with a light amber hue, great clarity and a low, off-white head. A pungent nose emanates from the glass, but it’s the imperial part of this Triple IPA that is most prominent. It screams of high alcohol throughout and drowns out the majority of the other flavors. The aroma is a pungent, boozy alcohol, reminiscent of rubbing alcohol, that mostly covers up any fruity/tropical hop notes (orange, peach, passion fruit) as well as some pepper. Beyond this is light grainy malt with some toasty caramel sweetness. The strong alcohol carries through into the flavor and unfortunately combines with the fairly high bitterness (bordering on astringent) and some grapefruit rind and resinous hops to create a fairly punishing character. This combination of weaknesses makes for an unpleasant finish. There seems to be some life to this IPA trying to get out, however the alcohol is so apparent that it’s almost like a hop-infused vodka rathe than a beer. Perhaps with some age this could turn into a good American barleywine, but as is, it’s too hot to handle.