Coronado Brewing Triple I.P.A.

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

aka Sock Knocker. These low scores all seem to be from years ago. Suffice to say things have improved greatly. As far as the hoppy beers go, this was a standout. There's a good chance the abv has been toned down a little. Can't confirm that. but it seemed closer to 10 than 13. Not a lot of balance...a big dank hop monster with some sweetness in the finish, but this is a hophead's beer.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 5 | Overall: 5

Served in a small 10oz glass off the tap at San Diego Brewing Company, on a quiet Saturday evening.

First things first: "Triple IPA", my ass. This is an American Barleywine. And a not very well-made Barleywine, either. But bowing to common convention, I agree that this beer should be listed in the database as a Double IPA....

Looks decent enough -- and has some interesting highlights in the nose, too. Hints of the warmth of this beer show up as soon as you give this a first whiff.

Man o' man, this is big. Big and ugly. Big, ugly, and unbalanced. Are you sure this isn't an Avery beer? ;)

But seriously, this beer's interesting flavor profile notes (some nuttiness, fair amount of fruit, a ton of malt) are kinda lost in the unbalancing negative aspects of this beer -- "under hopped" being my principle fault with this beer, to be honest. Along with the beer's lack of significant aging, it all comes across too young and way too "hot", especially at the gravity we're talking about here....

A classic case where some long-term aging (bottle conditioning) would do wonders for this beer. But since it's draught-only, and I'm kinda doubting that the brewery has the means to bulk-age kegs of this for months and months, they're kinda stuck selling this entirely too young -- at the expense of the beer, and at the expense of the palate's of the folks ordering this beer.

I like how Coronado Brewing has stepped it up a notch as of late, with bigger, bolder, more assertive, more interesting beers. But this particular one does seem too cranked up for my tastes....
//TB

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 2 | Flavor: 2 | Overall: 3

This beer was poured from tap at Obriens in San Diego. This beer pours an amberish color with a small thin white head, almost non-existant and no lacing whatsoever. The aroma is weak with wafts of alcohol and pine with a hint of bread...pretty basic. And that is where this story should have ended if we were hoping for a happy ending. By accident.... accident i say, i sipped the damn abomination of beer and it caused rapid convulsions of my taste buds. The flavor is overwhelmingly bitter, obtrusive, piney, alcoholic and downright dry. Absolutely revolting, over the hill mouth puckering pineyness balanced with zero... and i mean ZERO malts. They went about 10 steps past the finish button with this one. Heavy throat burn due to way too much alcohol presence. There was zero balance here in every respect of this beer....look away...look away and maybe...just maybe, it didnt really happen? Eh....

Aroma: 4 | Appearance: 4 | Mouthfeel: 4 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 3

This beer was poured from tap at Oíbriens in San Diego. Dark amber color. Small head. Aroma is piney, fruit, caramel and alcohol. A medium to full bodied Imperial IPA. Malts are fruity an sweet. Hops are overpoweringly piney with floral and grapefruit as well. An overwhelmingly bitter and alcoholy Triple IPA. Lots of alcohol oiliness. As Nigel Tufnel would say ìthis one goes to 15î. It should have stopped at 9 or 10. I can assume that some aging would settle this assault down somewhat. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is crisp and dry. Aftertaste is bitter

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

Pours with a deep red body topped by a thin head with some lacing. It’s slightly sweet and malty yet bitter with strong alcohol esters. Note much for hops to it. It definately needs some age to mellow out. Full bodied, tingly on the tongue and warming.