Kill & Destroy IPA
De Struise Brouwers

On tap at Ebenezer’s Pub in Lovell, Maine.

This one pours a golden amber color, with a very small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells caramelly, bready, oaky, with some slightly stale hop aromas, citrus peel, and vanilla.

This tastes like 120 Minute wishes it tastes like. At this age (unsure exactly how old) most of the hop character has faded away – not all of it, but most of it. There’s some citrus peel, lemon, and herbal bitterness, but the caramel and bready maltiness are coming through much more strongly. There’s not a ton of barrel character here, as it was only in Wild Turkey barrels for 4 months it seems, but there’s definitely some vanilla here, and maybe the caramel is slightly emphasized from the barrel.

This is medium to light bodied, with very little booziness for this being 18% ABV. This could have been absolutely brutal in this department, but it really wasn’t.

This was an absolutely wild thing to find on draft, and I’m certainly glad I did.

 

 

Pours a cloudy, deep ruby, shifting into mahogany, coloration with a small, frothy head. Smells of strong caramel malt and straight up pine resin, with some fruity red berry accents somewhere in the background. Taste is a perfect balance of strong caramel malt and extremely bitter and resinous hops, with distinct notes of toffee, red berries: red currant, strawberry, citrus: grapefruit and pine as well as lighter accents of vanilla and oak. Finishes with a very strong bitterness and some toffee, red berries, oak and booze lingering in the aftertaste. Full mouthfeel with a very rich body and light carbonation.

Is it an IPA or is it an extremely hoppy American Barleywine? You decide, but it's quite impressive that this manages that balancing act so well that you actually have to ask yourself that question. What's even more impressive is how little syruppy sweetness or over-the-top booze there is to this for an 18(!)% brew. It actually doesn't feel overly sweet at all and while there's a certain sharp booziness to this in the aftertaste, I've had much lower ABV brews that felt worse than this. It just kinda "fits" with this kind of brew, while never feeling overwhelming. There's such a strong, piney and resinous bitterness to this that the sweetness just doesn't stand a chance against it, without becoming an overdone end in its own though. The balance really is absolutely superb here, with some fruity, herbal, spicy and woody accents rounding this out quite nicely while providing a certain complexity. I've never had 120 Minute IPA, but this is EXACTLY what I always imagined it would taste like.

 

 

75 cl. bottle sampled. Reddish, rhubarb amber, little to no head. Smell is grapefruit, acetone, bitter herbs, oddly bitter, almost strawberry,… prob. some months old but who knows how an IIPA of this ABV behaves. Taste is bitter alcoholic, herbal, boozy pine, light earthly, very bitter spices, boozy, very burning nature, some strawberry,… Very easy body although hard to drink due to the booze,… Very interesting and fine stuff, although not too easy.

 

 

Purchased a bottle from the brewery after a field trip to St. Bernardus, Westvleteren....I finished up at the brewery and purchased a bottle after Urbain was kind enough to share with us.

Capped 750ml that boasts a 12% abv and 500 ibus, and 3 months in a Wild Turkey Barrel. Urbain claimed he used 40 lbs of American hops in a 10 barrel batch.

A: Pours like a big, American IPA. Orange-y with golden highlights. Decent head retention (mostly white). A few particles dancing around, but not cloudy or full of sediment.

N: Big American hops in the nose. Juicy, fruity citrus (whole variety) and a bit of tropical fruit. After the hop-forward part of it there's a hint of must and a bit of booze, but not as much as you think. Just a bit of bourbon, a hint of oak. Smells fruity and sweet.

T: Initial hit is sweetness, and it feels like it comes from the hops and the malt as well. Oily, resiny, a bit slick. The hops are big, bright and remain juicy. The massive hops balances out the massive booze oddly enough, and you get a bit of oak and vanilla in the finish. Nothing overly "sharp" or palate wrecking at first notice. Like I said, the bourbon is in the finish, and you're left with a bit of dryness. Fantastic that even with a beer this big, the hops and malt/booze are equal partners. Nothing ever "smacks you in the face." It's full but not overly aggressive.

M: Oily and slick. Every bit of "heavy" but never overwhelming. Your palate stays in tact most of the way.

O: Even at 16%, this still drinks like a big IPA, and not a "barleywine." Doesn't come off too aggressive, and makes you feel like it's full, as opposed to too sharp. While "subtle" is the wrong word to use here, I think it'd be hard to make this beer any less aggressive and any more subtle. Great that there aren't really any overwhelming sharp edges.