Beer Valley Leafer Madness Imperial Pale Ale

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Comes out of the tap a hazy, barely translucent honey golden with a fairly thick and fine-bubbled pale tan head. Aroma is STRONGLY hoppy with hints of banana, malt and apple - and quite sweet. Seriously hoppy flavor has an evergreen overtone, a strong bitter note, and subtle malty, sweet fruity and honey tones. Hard to improve on that! Firm-bodied texture has plenty of fizz and sass, and the tingle and subtle honey sweetness persists. Go mad for this one!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

medium to full bodied and pretty flavorful, but not as good as the sum of it's parts. better than a few but still got blown away by the likes of hercules, blue dot, and maharaja. piney and aromatic with a little citrus, and a lot of malt to make it pretty well balanced. a little on the premium side of the price spectrum for what you get.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Bottled (thanks omhper). Amber colour, big off-white fluffy/creamy head, that leaves good lace. Aroma is grains, grass, fruits, earth and some mild caramel. Flavour is fruity, caramelly, crisp malty as well as mildly alcoholic.

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 5

Has a very pine, citrus aroma. Has a hazy amber color with almost no foam. Mouthfeel was really messed up with almost no carbonation. I don't know why in the world it's so bad. Extremely bitter with hardly any malt for an Imperial. Has a very unusual hop flavor. Super herbal and almost minty in the aftertaste. A little bit of alcohol noticable. Considering how many of these hoppy beers there are in the NW, and how highly rated they are, I have to rate this one in the pisser compared to them. Couldn't even finish the bottle.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 7

light piney spice .. . great foam A+ lacing... . light aromas for the bud .. . medium bitterness.. . would go great with a big bowl of blueberry! .. . pass the lighter..

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Bottle, 9% ABV, RBNAG 2009 in Vatlandsvåg. Deep golden colour, moderate head. Fairly nice aroma of American hops, also notes of crystal malts and some caramel. The flavour has a distinct hoppy bitterness from start to finish, alcohol is noticeable but the beer is not too sweet.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Crazy 8's all the way down. It makes sense too. Pouring a heady beer in an old fashioned glass. Then we really know how we feel about IT. Lots of froth, stanky and dank. Fresh hops, like the bag(s) of hops in my closet. Off dry, nothing too significant but full and semi spicey. Clean. clean. clean. can't say it enuff! No harsh bitterness just a full clean hop taste. If this beer were a buddy it would be the chronic 2009!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Cool name for a beer I must say. The beer pours out a cloudy orange color, medium sized thick white head with minimal retention. Aroma is citrusy, but it has a big malt profile to keep it balanced. Not really how I personally like my IIPA’s to be. I like the hops to be the star, but in this beer it’s a double feature of hops and malt. Flavor thick with caramel malts, with grapefruits showing up about mid-palate and a lingering unrefined bitterness. I think for me the sweetness is a bit too much which takes away the beauty of the hops. Alcohol content would say an IIPA. A few percentages less, and this would pass as a nice IPA.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours out quite a hazy pale orange brew with a light tan head, awesome silty lacing and retains a thin bubbly head. Strong herbal hops, probably the strongest herbal hop beer that I've ever had, peppermint, candy, odd fruit that comes out after warming, background orange, floral more so than fruity, some caramel and very fresh. Incredibly bitter. Man, here is my cure for the hop bomb blues. This shit is potent! Killer hop power. Light orangy citrus, unsweetened grapefruit, some caramel / biscuit blend. The fruit is nice in the background after getting slammed by hops. It's like someone duct taped hops to a sledgehammer shaped fist and pounded me repeatedly in the face. Good times!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

A brisk pour produces a four finger-thick, light tan colored head that just crests the top of my 25cl tulip glass without overflowing. The beer is a clear, red-tinged, amber color that shows an almost brilliantly clear, copper color when held up to the light. The aroma is suitably hop focused with notes of pine needles, a green herbal note and sharp citrus notes of grapefruit and sour orange zest. Really the aroma is quite herbal in focus (including ample pine notes). The aroma finishes with a significant, though clearly supporting, biscuit and cracker like maltiness. Not the most hop complex nose, but certainly serviceable for a hop lover.

Creamy textured up front, but then a fizzy carbonation kicks in and ruins this a bit. Amply bitter from the get go with a strong, green, herbal hoppiness that just lingers on the palate long after the sip has left my mouth. A sharp, grapefruit hoppiness lies just behind the dominant pine and bitter notes, but this seems to be the most notable part of the citrus hop component. The hops in the finish get a little astringent especially when coupled with some hot alcohol flavors. A chewy malt character kicks in towards the middle of each sip accenting a solid biscuit character. This has a chewy body, enough to help support the hop character, but not so much that it is overly in the Barleywine category. As the beer warms up it softens up a bit and becomes more drinkable as it loses some of the harsh hop notes; though it starts to pick up a lacquered hop, almost phenolic, curing plastic note as well.

Definitely an aggressively hoppy brew. It doesn't have the hop balance that I like to see in a double IPA though; I prefer an ample hop fruit character that is tempered by the herbal & pine notes, while this one is opposite to that. Allowing this to substantially warm up from the 52°F / 11°C starting temperature really goes a long way to improving this beer though (despite that phenolic / lacquer note that is a bit nagging in the finish).

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ