Sim-Notic Imperial India Pale Ale
Cricket Hill Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

delicious

I liked it overall

My first new beer of NYE 2016-'17 & it is a bottle! Well, of course it is, since I am continuing to winnow through the Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody. Cricket Hill's owner/brewer. Rick, is an old friend & fellow Stillers fan & I am happy to see that this one has graduated from draft-only to bottles.

With nothing on the label to transcribe, all that remained was the Pop! of the cap. Once completed, an aggro pour produced two-plus fingers of dense, rocky, foamy, tawny head with Sim-Notic retention, mesmerizing me with its staying power. I snapped out of it as it began to fall, leaving loads of sticky lacing in its wake. Nose was this hophead's wet dream! Pine, pineapple and the infamous cattiness all jumped out of the glass and wafted into the air like Rick was spraying it out of an atomizer in my kitchen. Jeez-O, man. Color was Coppery-Brown (SRM = > 17, < 22) with Deep Amber highlights & NE-quality clarity. Gorgeous! Mouthfeel was medium-to-full, big for the style, not creamy, but heavy on the tongue. Speaking of which ... My poor, beaten & bruised tongue! The crazy hops got onto it and began using it like a punching bag, ala Ronda Rousey last night, except that there was no referee to jump in and put an end to it. I had no choice but to quickly swallow in order to give my tongue a chance. The flavors of pine and pineapple were more prevalent than the cattiness, but that was also easily discernible as was the caramel malt that served as the beer's backbone. Finish was dry, mostly bitter & just the way I like my beers. Both a work colleague and a local friend's friend recently mentioned their dislike of intensely hopped beers to me with the latter making the infamous "Bitter Beer Face", but I make no apologies. I am a self-described, self-avowed hophead. If this is not your bag, so be it. Leave it to the professionals. Now, if I could just get Rick to either CAN or al least get a Crowler machine ...

 

 

This stuff is freaking fantastic.

On tap at the brewery. Solid DIPA. I was impressed considering I'm not crazy about their regular IPA. I would definitely recommend you get some of this. Going to go back for another taste today. May up it another 1/4 star we will see.