Fallen DIPA
Cloud 9 Brewery

this is one of the ones that seems to always be on tap when i go in here, somehow missed it until now. its a little old school, good malt structure and flavor, somewhat generic hops, more bitter than flavorful, but well enough constructed and executed, im not in love with it, but i like this place a lot and think they do not get enough credit for their often very solid beers. this has an orange hue, a short white head, and an aroma of sliced grapefruit, orange candy, and light pine, its a little muddied by some simple but robust crystal malt, but good balance it seems. the flavor is well proportioned too, but this is a little basic to me, lacking a unique dry hop to set it apart, and less dry than i have come to prefer in the style. the alcohol also peaks through a bit, not quite burning but certainly warm, and this increases as the beer sits, almost more like its 10% abv or so to me. medium body, long hoppy finish, not sure the hops but could imagine simcoe and centennial or something similar leading the charge, familiar and northwestern. not radical but pretty well done, i prefer their more inventive beers, but this scratched my itch for a big hoppy something.

Pours an amber/auburn kind of color with 1/3" white head on the top. Absolutely devoid of hop aroma. You cant do this to me, not on a double ipa.

Taste, more of the usual heavy caramel and bitterness, but in terms of flavor, it just isn't there, carbonation too low for something this malty in a double ipa. The bitterness is monotonous. There isn't really anything in the way of flavor, its just brace yourself kind of 100+ ibu bitterness. Alcohol plenty perceptible. This is shit your dad would pay $9 for a bomber of at the supermarket.

At the end of the day, its below average all because the hop usage is atrocious and stuck in that PacNW caramel 100ibu old school C hop no proprietary hops allowed vibrancy. Another pregaming beer before Tom Petty with Chrystal, trying in 2014 to get her to revert to her 2012 self, before 2015 would see her fall so hard.

 

On tap at brewery. Some nice malt is the first thing you notice, followed by a pleasant hops bite. Medium golden body, nice lacing, smooth finish. Not as boozy as you would think....

Sweet after hoppy. 9.8 abv according to their stats.

 

RB

Fallen DIPA.. Slightly hop hazed golden... Great lacing... Bitter and balanced but not a whole lot of hop flavor... Okay but needs bigger pronounced hoppiness to really ramp things up. Not really that boozy either.. I would be a little surprised if this was actually almost 9%.. Bitterness is good, but sweet mid palate and needs those flavor hops to balance.

3.75/3.5/3.5/3.5/3.5