Deschutes Bond Street Hop Henge Imperial IPA

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

Sampled on draft at the Flying Saucer, KC. Pours copper with a thin head and intricate lace. Bready, floral-citrus aroma. Nicely bitter with a solid c-hop flavor. Full bodied. Good stuff.

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

Sampled on 2/6/10 at the Bistro DIPA fest. pours a deep copper color, medium/thick head. aroma is a fruity hoppiness. taste is fruity, pine. grapefruit/apricot. theres a balancing caramel malt sweetness. big hoppy bite. body is medium/full. aftertaste has a nice lingering bitterness.

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

Sampled on 3/24/2009. This Imperial IPA pours a deep dark orange gold color from a 22oz bottle. Medium sized white foamy head, with decent retention and good lacing. The aroma is floral and citrusy hops, caramel and fruity malts. A medium bodied Imperial IPA. The malts are fruity and sweet, lots of apricot and pineapple flavors. The hops are floral, citrusy and piney. Kind of juicy tasting. Lots of hop flavors and hop bitterness. Nice lively carbonation. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is bitter.

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

Yet another beer smuggled back from Las Vegas in the bum of beercronic. Dark burnt orange body with a normal sized crown. The lacing on this is ridiculously sticky it’s just glued to the side of the glass. Nose is filled with chocolate, nuts and bitter hops, more of a malty smell in this compared to others I’ve had recently, I think the chocolate aroma is throwing me off. Piney bitter hops some random citrus and a big malty backbone. Caramel to a smooth roasted malts dominate the taste. More chocolate shows up toward end of glass. Very easy drinking IIPA but not the hop bomb I was hoping for. Yet another brew enjoyed in Gully’s basement.

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

Bought somewhere in Vegas...
Poured out a thin off white head that leaves a hell of a lot of sticky lacing, brew is a hazy red amber. Smells pretty good albeit quite malty. The aroma is not the punch in the face that I wanted from this beer. Instead it is interesting just for being a bit different. Candy and citrus, mild biscuit malts that despite the mild taste are a dominating feature of the taste, some caramel, pine. nothing much... pretty subdued but enjoyable none the less. Tasty and easy to chug back and I've found biscuit and caramel dominating, some citrus (grapefruit, apricot and lychee, pineapple (maybe)), a bit syrupy, touch herbal but that is probably pine. Goes back smooth, leaves a nice residue in the mouth, ends mildy bitter for an IIPA. I bit disappointing I'll have to admit.

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

Picked up a bottle of this while visiting Reno, NV at the Booze Bros. Cracked it open for my nieces gradutation party. Aroma of citrus, pine and caramel. Strong piney hop character in the flavor which is offset nicely by the sweet malts. Some citrus character, a bit of alcohol..a pretty by-the-numbers DIPA. Nothing spectacular, but serviceable.

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

huge body and great mouthfeel. i thought this beer was great at first, then it didn't age well, so my memory of it at it's best is fading fast. isn't an ipa (especially a double) supposed to be cellerable?

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

Pours with an amber body topped by a thin to medium thick head with a good amount of lacing. It’s hoppy and bitter with pine notes, sweet, slightly fruity notes and an underlying malt note. Medium to full bodied and warming.

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

A reasonable pour produces a three-finger thick, tan colored head that just rises above the rim of my 25cl tulip glass. Lots of lace is produced by the sticky, hop laden head. The beer is a clear, deep amber color, but shows a brilliantly clear, deeply red tinged, copper color when held up to the light. The aroma is of course quite hoppy, though I wouldn't characterize it as being aggressively so for a Double IPA. Sweet, fruity citrus notes of lychee, apricot, candied grapefruit zest, tangelo and mandarin orange are the most noticeable note, but there is a greener hop note of light herbal notes that are just barely noticed under the surface. Biscuit like grain notes and a touch of toasty malt round out the finish, though this again plays a secondary role to the more fruity hop notes.

Soft feeling and almost creamy feeling up front, but a prickly carbonation quickly provides some texture and bite that evens this out. The beer is fairly bitter, but it takes a few sips before the effect gets magnified throughout the entire flavor profile; originally it was most noticed as a biting, lingering note in the finish. Very hoppy, yet somehow I feel like it is restrained; the fruity hop notes are most noticed, but a substantial herbal hop character plays a much bigger role than it did in the aroma. Flavors of lychee, mandarin orange and tangelo are coupled with a sharply herbal note reminiscent of a mix of hemp oil, menthol and perhaps something a touch harder like chive (this last is very light though). The finish gets a bit astringent with the mix of herbal hop character, hop bitterness and lightly perceptible, hot alcohol.

I like the body on this beer, it is not so heavy as many examples that seem confusingly like a hoppy Barley Wine, instead it just about has that drinkable character that something with IPA in the name needs. It does have a medium heft to it that is lightly viscous, and certainly palate coating; this quality serves to temper the hop character and accentuate the fruit focused notes. Speaking of the body, this is the spot where the malt character is most noticed; an accentuating sweetness that is not distinctly malt flavored helps to accentuate the hop character. There is perhaps a touch of a caramel edge to this beer, but the bitterness and alcohol heat keep this from developing any toasty malt character in the finish.

This is a pretty good Double IPA. It can get a little hot in the finish from the alcohol, especially as it warms up, but it does have a nice mix of hop notes that ultimately are what this style of beer is about. This is not the most scathingly hoppy example of this style and does actually achieve some balance despite the malt character really note playing an overtly noticeable role in the flavor.

Purchased: South Bay Drugs Pharmacy, Imperial Beach CA

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

I originally posted this review under the old IPA listing, but have now discovered from the BP gods that the beer has been retired and the IIPA is an entirely new beer. I see on the website that this is true, and I have reposted my review here. This really isn't so much like drinking a beer as it is like sucking on half a grapefruit. Needless to say, that sour/bitter taste is huge and remains for a long aftertaste. Pours a slightly red amber with a big, soft off-white head. Lots of little glistening bubbles make a sparkling foam on the sides of the glass. Never saw the remains on the side of the glass sparkle like that before. Overall, pretty much everything I expected from the name/brewery. Well Done.