It’s not often at all that I pour a beer and say, “Wow, that’s a good looking beer.”This one was was the color of amber, clear and clean and sported a quarter-inch head of white-turning-to-ran foam. It was a good omen.
That just heightened my hopes, because this was from a San Diego-based brewery that had been getting a lot of word-of-mouth on the East Coast. We’re talking about Green Flash Brewery and its Imperial India Pale Ale. I had heard good things about the brewery, and I am always looking for a good Imperial IPA. It came in a 22-ounce bomber for $5.99.
I may always be looking for a good example of the high-alcohol style, but I rarely find it. Even more than regular IPAs, the high-end variants tend to taste very soapy at times. Oh, the hops flavor is there, but so is a soapy – or tinny aftertaste.
But not this time!
I took a good healthy sip – the label amusingly refers to it as “highly quaffable." The hops were high in the nose when I sniffed it, but now overpowering. They were quite evident in the taste, too – high across the bridge of the mouth. The alcohol was evident, too, at 9 percent, but the soapy taste never came. Instead, I could almost feel my mouth pucker, as if I had sucked on a lemon. Trust me, this is a good thing. The bottle says it rates 101 on the International Bitterness Unit scale, but my friends who know such things tell me that’s not overly scientific when you get over 70 or so.
What matters is that it tasted terrific all the way through the bottle. It gave me a nice, warm tingle, and since I will be back near that package store this weekend, I know it’s not going to be the last bottle I try.
