Thunder Canyon Old Humulus Double IPA

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

Sampled on tap at the brewpub, October 2007
This beer pours from the tap a brilliantly clear, deep reddish-amber tinged, copper color. It is topped by a frothy, initially 1/4-finger thick, tan colored head that is pretty typical of a draught pour. The nose has quite a fruity hop-derived focus to it with notes of lychee, concentrated apricot / peach, an über tropical fruity note (but with out the exotic slant to it, if that makes sense) and some notes of tangelo. There is a solid, yet clearly secondary, backdrop of herbal aromatics here; made up of hints of pine and a touch of rougher, hemp-like aromatic notes.

My first sip has me a bit surprised that it is not thicker feeling, it is fairly easy drinking, even for some of the regular IPA examples out there; with the darker color, I was expecting this to be much sweeter. A touch of hot alcohol in the finish mixes with a solid bitterness that lingers and becomes more astringent the longer the beer has been out of my mouth. This lingering, bitter astringency reminds me of something like the characteristic oils from hemp, onions and a mix of woody / oil-laden herbs. Chewy caramelized malt notes do contribute significantly to the flavor profile; they lend a sort of fullness here that even sticks to the mouth a bit. Malt notes of biscuit-malt, caramelized (but not really sweet) malts, slightly toasted grain flavors and a richly browned, yet somewhat subtle, chewy, bread crust note. Touches of hop derived fruit flavors are here (with notes of lychee, candied orange peel, tangelo and grapefruit being noticeable), but not nearly as much as the aroma would have suggested. The flavor is much more driven by the herbal / pine hop notes; there are definitely turpene influenced flavors here, comprised of menthol like pine, almost a garlic / green onion note (perhaps garlic chive is what I am after here), oil-laden hemp, a touch of rosemary, a bit of woody sage and some hints of thyme.

It is interesting that the aroma is so fruit focused, yet the flavor is much more herbal in character. Though, I must admit, depending on where my palate is on any given sip, the fruit notes can be quite a substantial flavor contributor as well. This is perhaps a touch thicker than I like in a Double IPA, but it is still pretty damn good. Somehow this is subtly super-hoppy; I am not entirely sure what I mean by this, but it is most definitely amply hopped, but is so well integrated that I don’t feel like I am being bludgeoned over the head by the hops. Overall I would have to say that this is easily the best commercial Double IPA I have ever had from a Tucson brewery. Ok, it is the only one as well, but it is actually quite tasty; Enough so that I grabbed a couple growlers to go.