Mike Duggan #99 Double IPA
Duggan's Brewery

Pint at The Only. A burnished rich orangey color with a finger of creamy head that leaves spider web lacing.

Nose is devoid of any real hop presence, clean caramel malt, hint of ethanol, perhaps a light floral presence.

Lots of piney bitterness but lacking much aroma hop presence - not shocking considering the aroma. Sticky caramel and bread malt base, resiny pine bitterness with a long finish, alcohol present in the finish. It's a passable beer but nothing to write home about, despite it being one of the only DIPAs in Ontario. Duggan's skill is more in lower ABV beers and this one is a bit of a miss.

Finally, a double IPA in Ontario worth talking about! On tap at Duggan's brewery downtown Toronto.

A: Poors an amber-copper brown with a finger of off white head, lacing the glass thinly as it dissipates.

S: Grapefruit rhind and piney hops are the dominating smell here with the slight smell of malts bringing up the rear but they just can't balance out the aromatic bitterness.

T: Again, the piney, grassy hops and grapefruit bitterness with some peppery notes. The hops are supplied from all over according to Mike, including the Barrie area. This beer has the wet hop flavour of a west coast IPA an although not as high ABV, it will sneak up on you.

M: Instantly those hops again! Right up front, the hops on the tongue and then again at the back. Although not quite as powerful as the West Coast DIPA's, very satisfying.

D: Love it. Hope it gets more and more powerful as Duggan does his thing.

Visited the brew pub in Toronto. The pizza was delicious, this beer, was not. I couldn't even finish a half pint. This isn't an ipa, let alone a double ipa. Terrible after taste and just a disappointment over all. Sure the effort is there for an Ontario brew, but thats not enough to make this enjoyable.

Ah, Duggan and his numbering. Is it a number 18 or a number 99? Who cares, let's just call this his first stab at a double IPA.

Pours a ruddy brown with a finger of off-white head that drops to a film, but leaves some nice lace on the way. Interesting aroma has a prominent biscuity maltiness underneath grapefruit pine and herbal notes. The higher malt presence in the nose makes this feel like an amped up ESB, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and in this case it works nicely.

Hey, this is actually bitter. It lies somewhere between a regular IPA and an imperial, both in terms of its bitterness and the alcohol strength. Neat pine and grapefruit zest flavours are still in play, but there's more of a floral quality to the hopping in this beer, and this pairs really well with the leafiness and pepperiness that also come to the fore. As previously mentioned there's a lot of malt to provide a balance, which is more or less achieved in the face of a generous hop character. The medium body and carbonation works well too.

Neat beer, and not what I'd traditionally think of in an imperial IPA because it rejects the traditional big citrus and resin character for a floral, leafy and spicy one. Nice stuff, and recommended.

On-tap at Duggan's Brewery, in Toronto.

The beer has an almost artful brassy complexion that, when held up to the light, makes its tawny-amber colour seem so much more lustrous and aesthetic. The clarity may be blurred but the transparency is uncompromisable. Its head is well sculpted, a pronounced finger's worth, and milky white. Its cobweb lacing looks like something out of my garage.

Some DIPAs brim with bright, citric notes but others are just raw, pure, unmistakable lupullin; just Mother Nature in all her plain old green flowery glory. This bouquet, and the flavour also, does have an element of fruit (grapefruit, specifically) but it ain't no flesh or peel - it's just the pith. Bitter, bitter piths. And it smells like a (morbid) flower shop, too.

This is not your typical American West-coast style DIPA. For one, the alcohol, which is modest to begin with, factors little into the drinkability. Secondly, the character of the hops isn't overtly fruity or piny, but rather audaciously floral (like distilled flower petals), distinctly leafy and blisteringly spicy. Also, there's enough toasted malt to balance it all out.

If you've ever bitten into a fresh, whole hop cone then you know what this beer tastes like. Nevermind nuanced flavours or flavours that are reminiscent of other things, this tastes like whole raw hop cone and, again if you've tasted it before you know, all the zesty spiciness and leafy, pithy greenness that you'd expect from a plant. And a lot of flower petals too.

As for the malts, they're there too although, surprisingly, rather complacent playing the supporting role. They provide a biscuity, wafer-like base but it's the suffocatingly drying, earthy, pithy, grassy, zesty attributes of the hops that run a muck on the palate. The beer has sufficiently malty body but it only bolsters the hops it doesn't compete with them.

Duggan lists this as #18, presumably because it's two times his #9 (I certainly enjoyed it twice as much). It strikes me as a beer that would turn a lot of people off - and that's a good thing, exactly what you'd want in a double IPA, in fact. The intense flavours, fierce bitterness and vehement hoppiness are naturally going to be too much for the general public but, for those like me, there couldn't really be a more gratifying treat.

Had this on cask at Volo. Poured a deep amber colour with hardly any head. Some pine and citrus hop flavour with a big enough malt presense. Taste has much of the same. Not the hop or bitterness punch of a double IPA, but it feels closer to an IPA in the same way the #9 feels closer to an APA.

My friend and I both commented that it really was similar to a stronger version of the #9.

Pours medium golden with off-white head. Aromas malty, old ale malty. Served way too cold at Cloak and Dagger. Piney hops way out more than malts on taste, worse as it warms. Above average mouthfeel from bulk of ingrediants. Drinkable, but a pint is a lot. My guess is 6.5% a.b.v.