Hard Tail
Lake Bluff Brewing Company

Amarillo hopps! BIG beer, excellent for an autumn day. I'd stick to no more than 2 or you will be fishtailing your way out the door. Lacking aroma, but you won't miss it after your first sip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On-tap today at the brewpub.

Deep saturated orange with bright clarity, visible trails of rising carbonation. Creamy texture to the foam, it adheres to the sides forming a collar at first, then drippy concentric rings of lace all the way down with each sip. Retention is good considering it's in the neighborhood of 9% abv.

Big citrusy aroma, orange peels and grapefruit pith big time. Mellow sweet honey malts behind that initial hop blast. Smells resiny, though it's a touch reserved in the aroma department. Nevertheless, it's a hop bomb that delivers in all aspects.

Deeply resiny citrus taste, with a sticky sweet caramel maltiness backing it up. Clean with no hint of alcohol, it's exceptionally drinkable and potentially dangerous. Overall nicely balanced and way more drinkable than many DIPAs this strong. Would have picked up a growler if it wasn't in the $25+ range with the glass. Highly recommended, the favorite of the day.

This beer compelled me to contribute my first ever review on BA. I really enjoyed this beer. I first had it on draught last weekend and went back today and filled two growlers to share with some friends. The beer pours a nice amber color with a thick fragrant head that slowly thinned but lasted the entire glass.

I thought the flowery hops aroma that came off the head was nicely pronounced and met expectation on the palate. The amount of malt flavor was unexpected but combined nicely with the citrus finish. This is a very drinkable beer which at the 8.8 ABV could be a problem if you need to drive home afterward!

I love it the story of this place; a local home brewer decides to go public with his craft. Buy local, stay local, be green… it all works to produce the sort of hands-on product that too often fades when a microbrewery gains too much notoriety and must then ‘keep up’.

Lake Bluff Brewing Company is a welcome addition to northern Lake County, IL. The folks there are a delight and make the whole experience worth the slightly out of the way trip to quaint Lake Bluff worthwhile.

A: Pours like a nice beer should, clean and crisp, good light head.

S: No hop aroma! I can't imagine their imperial IPA was dry hopped at all. I seriously could not have picked this beer out from amongst a pilsner or even budwiser. I was confused and thought I may have been poured another beer at first. I'm giving it a 2.0 since there wasn't anything 'bad' about the smell - just no smell at all.

T/M: First taste gives you a crisp and malty IPA, perhaps focused too much on the malt sweetness that doesn't carry across well with the almost 9% ABV. The aftertaste was not all that great with a lingering bitterness. Strong on the alcohol and very lightly carbonated.

Can't say I'm a big fan of this beer. The intense hop needed to balance this IPA was not delivered. This is also one of the few instances where the nose of a beer threw me off a bit. An imperial IPA should deliver on a punch-you-in-the-face amount of hops that will leave you wondering how you ever lived without it. Perhaps they have focused too much on punching up the IBU's without considering how they got there.

I'd try this beer again in hopes that this place is simply new and has a lot of little problems to iron out. This beer is better than their Soft Tail IPA - but I won't review the soft tail based on the single taster I had of it (and nearly dumped that out). I'd like to note that this beer is not a BAD beer - it's rather drinkable. However it's just really not an imperial IPA.