Uncle Billy's Resonator Double IPA
Uncle Billy's Brew & Que

 

Thanks to mar for sharing this handbottle filled from an Uncle Billy's growler.

Pours golden orange with a white head. The aroma is strong resiny and piney hops. The flavor is more resiny hops with some grassyness and citrus flavors as well. Low carbonation and medium mouthfeel.

A- Pours orange and cloudy. A full finger of head. Pocodots of lacing.

S- Smells hoppy, definitely a hop forward beer. A touch of vegetalness.

T- Hop forward again in the taste. Sort of a pine combined with tropical fruit. Imagine taking a pineapple and rubbing it into some sap leaking out of a pine tree- that's the flavor I get from this beer.

M- Bitter, lingering. I'm getting some notes of minerals or possibly limestone, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's dry.

D- Eh I could take it or leave it. A great beer for a hop head but I think I'm just not quite in the mood for hops tonight.

On-tap at Uncle Billy's, served in a standard pint glass.

I like it when Austin breweries making big, hoppy beers. It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does, it usually turns out right. Such is the case with Uncle Billy's Resinator. Weighing in at 8% ABV, this beauty of an IIPA pours with a slightly hazy orange-copper body. A healthy cap of light custard foam goes nowhere for the first ten minutes, slowly retreating as it deposits sticky lace along the inside of the glass. The aroma smells like it should, with big, piny hops leading the way and dropping notes of citrus, resin, and herbal mint. Good backing of caramel & pale malts adds a sweet, doughy balance.

The flavor mimics the aroma well, blasting the tastebuds with an initial burst of grapefruit and pine. Resinator isn't bracingly hoppy for a Double IPA, but the IBU's are definitely in the 75+ level. Lots of tropical fruit from the yeast to go with a solid, crisp malt profile. Very clean on the finish, with little evidence of the 8% in the medium body. Very tight carbonation makes this drink more like a single IPA, which I like. I could have easily had a few more of these in one sitting without getting tired of it. Great job, Uncle Billy's...this one is a winner.

Pours a rich amber/brown color, with a bit of cloudiness and a nice creamy offwhite head. Smell is exactly like I like in my IPA/IIPAs. Big fruity hops, citrus and some pine jumping out of the glass and into my nose. Tastes delicious. Gummy apricot flavors come to mind. Juicy, fruity, and very easy drinking. More like a strong IPA, than a double, and the balance makes this divine. Different than the West Coast IIPAs but I prefer the lusciousness and drinkability of this. Awesome beer!

Appearance: Slightly hazy deep copper color, with a large white head, thick glass-coating lace, with slight carbonation.

Aroma: Intense citrus and pine tar and grapefruit hops. Surprisingly, toasted malts are notable for the fact that the can be distinguished amongst the array of hops. Still, despite the presence of the malt the aroma is about the hops, as it should be.

Taste: Opens with solid grapefruit hops, with a malt presence which struggles heroically to assert itself, and by and large does succeed, despite the massive wave of hops. Finishes with a lingering grapefruit rind note.

Mouth feel: Smooth and excellently full, pleasing to the palate.

Drinkability/notes: A really well-made example of the style. Considering that I am assuredly not a hop-head, I must say that this is a superb example of the style.

Sampled on tap at Uncle Billy's on October 13th, 2007.