The Hoptimizer
Black Rooster Brewery

 

The beer is slightly hazy amber, an off-white high head with good lacing. Some curtains.

Smelling slightly sweet, but much citric, grape-fruit, hay and grass.

The taste is well balanced, sweet bread notes, citric notes, grape peel and bitter oranges.

Medium high carbonation, small bubbles, a soft feeling, a full body and dry coarser finish.

A good solid hoppy IPA, the cask version last year where a bit fresher and better.

The colour is amber (22 EBC), the liquid cloudy. The finger thick head is firm, warm white and compact. Some lacing occurs.

The smell is dry and very hoppy. Some oranges and grapefruits, lots of clean bitter flavours. Sweet notes of caramel and exotic fruits.

The taste is bitter with some citric flavours. Lots of passing bitter flavours. Very fresh and bitter flavours. The aftertaste got some warming alcohol, smooth citric fruity flavours, and some caramel and meadow flowers. The finish got lingering clean bitter notes.

The carbonation is medium strong; the smooth bubbles are small. The liquid is a bit dry.

An pleasant and quite dry American IPA. Highly gulpable!

Appearance Served in a jumbo wine glass is a semi-transparent amber to brown (gradient goes from bottom to top) ale. Circa one finger of head, bright beige in color. The head flattens pretty fast. Long curtains that drop fast too.

Smell Dominant hops and vanilla in perfect unity! The vanilla aroma reminds me of custard. It’s round and sweet. There are also notes of apricot fruits and citrus.

Taste Once again the hops take a central position, there also spices that make themselves known. The alcohol does carry a lot of the flavor here. Other than that I sense pink grapefruit peel, a drop of dishwashing liquid and some of that aroma vanilla is still being present. The sweetness is honey like.

Mouthfeel Pleasantly coarse due to the vast amount of hops (Cascade and Chinook) used for hopping and dry hopping, the bittering hops paralizing the top of the tongue, There are alot of small bubbles as well as prickling but fast diminishing carbonation.

In conclusion Sometimes it’s the little things make me happy. A hopalicios IPA from a small craft brewery in neighboring Denmark is one of those. I had no idea what to expect from this Black Rooster roster which is why I jumped out my chair with surprise once I had a first snift. This is nothing I for the novice beer drinker, but a pleasure ride for a hop head, like myself.

A: Pours hazy orange with a tall beige head that sinks into nice lacings.

S: Rich floral hops, caramell malt, semi-sweet, kind of bready. Some bitter hops. Citric and piney, American-style; grapefruit, pineapple and lemon sezt.

T: Sweet malt, caramell. Nice bitter hops as well as floral; nice mix. Bready. Pine and citrus. Much like the smell.

M: Long lovely bitter aftertaste. Body is meidum and carbonation mild.

O: A well balanced AIPA.