Death By Viking
Solemn Oath Brewery

My first experience from Solemn Oath is definitely shaping up to be a doozy with this one. I just grabbed the trifecta of "Viking" IPAs from this brewery (who is new to my distribution area; thanks Night Shift Distributing for bringing them in), so let's see just how much viking metal can fit into one 16 oz tallboy! Of course, beer is nothing without great music, so I'm pairing my enjoyment of this with a classic of viking doom metal: Scald's "Will of the Gods is Great Power"!

This pours a rather deep amber color with one hell of a huge, dense head. This beer has only a little bit of clarity... just about enough to see the silhouette of my hand behind the glass if held up to light. I poured this semi-carefully into a stein and still got four to five fingers of rocky foam. It's bubbling away pretty slowly and leaving behind sticky, intense lacing appears as I type this review and each small bit of remaining beer in the can adds a finger or two to the proceedings. This definitely looks the part of an "American Imperial India Pale Ale," clocking in at a whopping 10%!

The nose here is heavy on the pine sap and tangerine with supporting notes of candied grapefruit, papaya and passion fruit, making it one of the fruitiest "triple IPA" style ales I've had in recent memory. Sure, there's a certain amount of crystal maltiness going on here, but it's dexterously-handled and balances well with the juicy hop elements. Honestly, this seems to have a very good balance of older-school "hoppy barleywine"-kinda beers that we were seeing around 2010-2011 and the newer-school of fruity and uniquely-hopped strong ales.

The flavor profile is very tropical fruit-smoothie forward, interestingly enough, with strong flavors of passion fruit, papaya and dragonfruit with a small and appreciable nod toward tart and bracingly-bitter grapefruit peel. The caramel malts are dialed back on the tongue to make way for these juicy hop flavors, but the mouthfeel retains a big bite and surprising depth. This just feels like one of the most well-balanced TIPAs I've ever had. I honestly get very little pine here on the tongue, but the dankness in the nose cannot be understated. Love the smooth, slick and semi-chewy feel here. Carbonation is well-developed too, and the 10% is barely felt compared to many others in this style. Very, very well done, with a clearly-tenuous balance that nevertheless feels effortless for the brewery. Looking forward to the others I bought from them! Skål!

 

 

 

 

A- Tallboy into a becher with a murky floury golden orange body. The head is thick and foamy rising to a finger high with decent retention. Tons of thin webs of lace.

S- Hoppy but considering the ABV the aroma is not all that intense. Citrus comes to mind and holds most of the spotlight by far. Oranges, grapefruit and tangerines up front with mango, floral, pine and herbal hops as well. Not a ton of distinct hop aromas here and as mentioned kind of timid. Sweetness is 100% suggested.

T- Kind of shifts a decent amount towards the stone fruit but a slight bit of intense powder bitterness comes out that is all too prevalent in modern IPAs, that acrid pure hop bitterness that almost burns. Big orange and grapefruit with mango, tangerine, papaya, lime, peach and dank herbs. A good portion of sweetness as well as crackery pale grains.

MF- Heavy bodied with a somewhat low end carbonation. Slightly silky and frothy and it ends with an intense stinging bitterness.

Huge ABV as well as a lot of intense hop bitterness that comes on a bit too strong after the big citrus flavors.

 

16oz can, date stamped 09 18. Hazed amber colored body with a foamy ivory head. Aroma is intriguing: fruity, earthy, boozy, tropical, grainy, caramely. Complex flavors of toasty and biscuity grain, caramel, bread crust pairs well with bitter hop notes of earthy pine, orange & grapefruit citrus, mango, apricot, fruity esters, peppercorn, and booze. Full body, ample carbonation, assertive bitter finish with pine, citrus, and pepper lingering on the palate. This was good. A lot of flavors I enjoy in a DIPA: big malt presence with a bold bitter bite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very interesting DIPA. Solemn Oath claims an IBU rating of 110 for this beast, but it has a strong malt/sweetness to balance out all of that bitterness which leaves it with a heavy feel. It's good but not great. Bottle art was cool--different than the picture shown here on BA. Moving on!

Drank 3/3/14 on draft @ the Empty Bottle.

Rich urine color.

White head; minimal lace.

Caramel, honey & pine nose.

Medium thick, sticky mouthfeel.

Mild grapefruit & caramel flavor, with a slightly tart flavor. Nice!