Twenty Pounder
Driftwood Brewery

Driftwood has a deft hand when it comes to brewing NW IPA; its mastery in balancing sweet malt and resiny hop is legend. This 2021 release, sampled from a 473 ml can, doesn’t disappoint. Aside from its splendid nose, flavour, mouthfeel and tingly finish, credit should be given for its remarkable unfiltered clarity. This is very well crafted beer.

 

Crystal clear deep golden honey pour with finger foamy white head - fading to bubbly lacing at edges of glass.
Sweet bready/doughy maltiness on the nose with tropical notes - pineapple, citrus, hints of peach - a little grassy.
Taste hits up front with bready malt then quickly get sticky bitter hops, a bit of weediness, resinous coating the mouth - very little of the fruity sweetness of the nose.
Medium full mouthfeel - sticky bittersweet coating the palate, but lingering boozy warming bitterness remains - very nice!
There is no doubt Driftwood knows what they are doing.

Looks beautiful in the glass. Bright, clear gold. Strong hop aroma of citrus and pine. Tastes like the name suggests. The hops hit hard and so does the bitterness. Its a celebration of flavour in your mouth that IPA lovers will enjoy. Doesn't overpower and doesn't lack character. Leaves a lovely tingling on the tongue to finish. Highly drinkable and refreshing despite the ABV, don't have more than one before you need to pick up the kids from school. Would certainly drink this one again. One of my favourite breweries on the west coast, great line of beers, also love the bottle artwork from the folks at driftwood brewery.

 

Poured from bomber into oversized pilsner glass. Pale amber in the glass, lingering ring of foam with stranded and persistent island of bubbles. OH momma, that tastes incredible. Sweet eastern fruit on the nose. Drynapples are dancing on my tongue. Feels like bees diluted their 'best of hive, 2019', but just a bit, perhaps with something effervescent. A delectable foam coats my tongue with each sip, then subsides. Oh lordy this is lovely. Bump taste to a 5. Bought 4 this time, fully expecting it to be sold out after discovering the brilliance of this edition last week. Year to year variation makes this DIPA one to look forward to with optimism, and Driftwood has justified mine.

Hazy pale amber; flowers + orange peel; thread of toffee shortbread then *sweet* orange with hits of pine + pineapple, real IBUs; oil + slight burn.

4 4.25 4.25 4 4

Crushing C hops. 2011 all over: dry, IBUs, maybe too hit, but yummy. Pliny all over. Glad I finally caught up with this.

 

 

 

 

If you want to spent some doubloons on a journey to find a delicious beer, this double IPA from Driftwood is surely a pirate treasure worth seeking out.
X marks the hop on this skull-shaped island of bitterness, and it's not like they didn't warn me. Double IPA's are notoriously hoppy, but none fly their Jolly Roger quite like the Twenty Pounder, which presented its bitterness even in the smell. Its foam, white as the shoals of a furious sea, clung to the glass like Sirens to a lost fisherman's boat.
Buried beneath the foam lied the golden liquid that invited me for a dive. I plunged in, keelhauling myself into the depths of this cursed brew that hit me harder than the announcement of yet another "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
I can't describe the taste as anything other than raw. But its first canon-fires of hop, that nearly numbed the roof of my mouth, made room for flavours as light and clear as the moonlight shining onto a ghost pirate's face. These flavours smoothly lingered on my tongue for a long-lasting moment, until the Sirens beckoned me for another venture into the best double IPA in all of the seven seas.

 

Really nice West Coast dank and grapefruit characteristics here. Alcohol masked well and drinkability quite high. Maybe a tad bit aged, but all in all a really nice take on the style.

 

Appearance - Pours a medium amber with three fingers of billowy white head.

Smell - citrus and floral hops, grapefruit peel, bready malts, caramel, hint of pineapple and mango.

Taste - Bitter citrus and floral hops followed by the grapefruit peel. The brew then goes into the bready malts, caramel, and hint of pineapple and mango.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky with a pleasant lingering bitterness.

Overall - A fantastic rendition of the DIPA style. The hops and malts are pleasantly balanced showcasing their strengths.

650ml bottle poured into Sam Adams pint glass.

Pours a clear golden yellow with one finger of fluffy white head that leaves cheerful summer clouds of lace as it recedes.

Smells of pink grapefruit and navel orange flesh, mango, pineapple, honey-drizzled bread crust and pleasantly dank piney hops.

Tastes of citrus rind and pine resin hop rape, subdued tropical fruit, more honeyed bread and continued sticky pine resin.

Feels thick and soft. Full bodied with creamy carbonation. Finishes dry.

Verdict: Vigorously recommended. Drink this and you'll be thinking about hops for days.

 

 

Pours a light copper with a lazy white head that lasts forever. Aroma is quite fragrant and tropical with a hint of dankness. Flavour hits somewhat boozy, malty with a blast of fruity, resiny hops. Finishes quite earthy

 

 

This is a very sharp tasting brew as might be obvious from the high ABV, coupled with the fact that it's a double hopped IPA. This isn't just about the hops... It's also about the buzz.

It pretty much attacks you with some sweetness at first at the edges of the toungue, followed by a kick of hoppiness to the middle, and concluding with a tarty and dry palette, typical of a really strong brew. After 5 or so swigs, my toungue feels like it's been carpet-bombed by hops. And as for the hoppiness... it's kinda like a premature ejaculation: immediately satisfying self-absorption, but feeling awkward now... was that it? (subject matter I know very, ahem, little about of course).

The label art is reminescent of the AC/DC classic album cover, which pretty much exemplifies what this beer is all about... maybe some "Balls to the Wall" as well.

Edit 2015:
So after keeping. A bottle aged in highly environmentally controlled conditions (read basement) I cracked open a bottle aged after about 2 years. Boy what a difference!

The hoppiness is pretty much gone and the Caramel tones are on full display. The lacing and carbonation are weak but it's a totally different experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

650ml bottle - 'Twenty Pounder' - a fantastic name for a DIPA, for historical and actual brewing term reasons, I would imagine! Also, additional points for the AC/DC reference.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some wispy dissipating cloudscape lace around the glass as things slowly seep away.

It smells of dank pine resin, kind of meaty caramel malt, musty orange, pineapple, and red grapefruit rind, strangely hovering yeast, a sense of wet ash, and further leafy, herbal, and dead floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, mint and some other weird earthy spice, muddled domestic and tropical citrus pith, and some headier (dual meaning implied) wet piney, leafy, spicy, and herbal hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite robust in its gentle, but duly thorough frothiness, the body a solid medium-heavy weight, and mostly smooth, just a wee piney and boozy twin-gun edginess asking for a veritable salutation here. It finishes well off-dry, the caramel malt not going down that easily, while the complex (complicated?) fruity and green hoppy essences provide a continuing foil to it all.

Yeah, I'm not sure what happened, as there is indeed a quality base DIPA here, sure, but a whole lot of (Rosie - oh stop it!) weird off-flavours seem to riddle the whole affair, which is more than a mild surprise coming from Driftwood. Oh well, shit happens, I suppose, and you just gotta go and pick up your balls, and load up your cannon anew, eh?

 

 

Golden orange brew with plenty of foam in the wine glass. It has the fermenting pineapple aroma. Hot with alcohol and moderately spritzy. Quite fruity. Sweet to start but a dry, woody finish. Canned peaches and Canned Heat.

Drinkable but rather winey and seriously hot. Hops are a little dirty. From the 650 ml bottle purchased at Crosstown Liquor in Vancouver. The new label is sensational with a skeleton in full gold uniform and a ghostly red horse.

 

 

 

 

A: Golden with a moderate head that dissipates slowly leaving a minimal trail of lace as the glass empties.

S: Strong citrusy hop aromas. Honey.

T: Again, strong citrus with a very appealing strong bitterness.

F: Full and creamy

O: A very enjoyable IIPA. The citrus dominates, and if that is your thing, this is a great example to try.