Denogginizer Double IPA
Drake's Brewing Co.

 

Pushing ten percent in alcohol and built in the West Coast style, Drake's Brewing isn't pulling any punches in their Imperial IPA. Brace yourself!

Pale amber and reasonably hazy, the foggy honey-like Denogginizer strikes the nose with bold citrus, stone fruit, tropical fruit, floral aromas and a bold peppery spice as its foamy head beings to build. Sweet in its early impressions, the malt influence applies a coat of honey, caramel and toasted nuttiness to seem like granola.

As its flavors flood the middle palate, the hops blast the palate with a classic and resinous taste of grapefruit and orange while secondary flavors of pineapple, apricot and dragonfruit as the strong esters and fruity hops intertwine on the tastebuds. As the stubborn malts start to dissolve, the hop bitterness grows into a peppery, spicy and resinous taste of pine sap, citrus peels and gin-like botanicals as the session starts to wain.

Full bodied and drying to a malty-dry status, the decidedly bitter beer seems even more so because of the spicy alcohols that keep those gin-like impression flowing through a long and bitter aftertaste. It's a good beer, just nothing to lose your head over.

Deep copper in color. Thick off white head. Very good lacing. Nose is piney and slightly citrus with a sweet caramel hint. Taste was slightly caramel and pine. Good bitterness, not as much as I prefer though.

 

 

Pour is a very amber color with the two finger foam head that isn't very retentive.

All I can really smell is a sweet (malty?) Aroma that I cannot identify.
Taste is of hops and a light hint of apple. Finishes with mild bitterness and leaves minimal lacing.

Denogginizer
By Drakes $14.99 sixer at San Francisco Target (bottled 04/19/22) poured into a juice glass at the hotel

A-A careful pour results in a 1-1/2 finger frothy off-white head atop a slightly hazed golden-orange body with loads of carbonation. Awesome fluffy rings are left behind as the head holds near a full finger throughout.

S-Big and hoppy, though lots of malt backbone too. Grapefruit and sweet dough. Leafy, leathery, some herbal and medicinal notes.

T- As the aroma suggests. Big grapefruit hops. Sweet, doughy and husky malts. Also leafy tobacco. Kind of biting at points, both boozy and hoppy.

M- Medium full body. Bone dry. Hoppy bite. Hints of booze warmth.

O- A big drinking double ipa. Bold and complex. Edges toward harsh at points.

9.75 abv 91 ibu

4.5 4 3.75 4 3.75

 

 

 

Picked up a 12 oz single can from the Exxon station cooler on Long Shoals Road in Asheville on 9-14-21 for $2.09. Canned 18MAY21; consumed 12-8-21. Cold stored since purchase.

Beer poured orange with a nice long lasting one finger head.

Nose is of floral hops and some citrus.

Taste is old school WC DIPA. Big bad ass pale malt base that is loaded up with alpha hops that give off grapefruit, pine, and some orange. Finishes with a very strong rind and pine bitterness; 8/10 on my scale.

Mouthfeel is large bodied and very smooth and satisfying.

Overall i did these old school beers as there is something satisfying about a big mouthfeel and a big alpha hop addition!

Poured from a bottle into a snifter
Appearance – The beer pours a hazed golden orange color with a one finger head of white foam. The head has a great level of retention, slowly fading over time to leave a great sum of spotty lace on the sides of the glass.
Smell – The aroma of the brew is very herbal heavy with a nice bready and doughy backbone smell. Along with these aromas comes nice aromas of a pine and grapefruit citrus nature as well as some sweeter smells of apricot and peach. With just a touch of a caramel and a hit of hay, a very intriguing aroma is produced overall.
Taste – The taste begins with a medium bready malt taste matched with a light fruit sweetness of apricot and peach and a whole lot of hop. The hop starts biggest of an earthy and herbal nature. As the taste advances the sweet initially gets stronger, only to fad as the taste advances. While the sweeter tastes dwindle, the hop intensifies. The herbal and earthy hop tastes both gets stronger, and are joined by a bit of grapefruit and pine. At the end a touch of hay and grain come to the taste and with the big increase in hop, one is left with a rather resinous and robust hopped taste to linger on the tongue.
Mouthfeel – The body of the brew is medium in thickness and creaminess with a carbonation level that is rather average to on the lower side. For the style the feel is good, making this one at 9.75 % almost too easy to drink.
Overall – A nice none citrus and resinous IPA with a great drinkability and flavor profile. Quite tasty.

 

Pleasant enough double IPA. Resinous, herbal, piney, classic West Coast taste. A bit boozy.

Poured from a bottle into a tulip glass. Clear yellow color with good head and nice curtain lacing. Fruity, herbal smell. Decent feel. Some vanilla also in the taste. Decent but fairly standard.

 

poured from bottle into glass, good 2 finger off white cream colored head, so so retention, great lacing. Bright golden in the glass, not hazy but thick looking. Smells piney, yeah shit that is just about it. Boom the pine and malt on the front end of this beer is 100% old school. Big dankness on the middle and in the finish. Bitterness is well tempered with the sweetness to where this is highly drinkable with very little tannins left on the palate. Great job constructing such an easy to drink bomb. I will sleep well tonite

Canned 18 May 21...consummed 25 Jul 21. Sweet malt overwhelmed the hops to me, making it appear more barley-wineesqe. Not a bad thing at all and a top-tier barleywine it would be!

 

 

This is one of those beers I sometimes see popping up on WBAYDN? threads and have always been at least a bit curious about (Parish's Ghost in the Machine is another one that comes to mind, for the record). I had no idea Drake's was going to be expanding into MA, so seeing this on the shelf at my local liquor store was pretty cool. I picked up a four pack without hesitation and took my spoils home.

Cracking open the can (which is dated 5/18/21, by the way) and pouring the beer into a glass, I am met with a medium-amber beer building up with a huge, frothy head of bone-white foam that quickly settles to a half-finger of chunky suds that leaves behind a decent trail of tiered lace in its wake. It's a little hazy, to the extent that I can't see directly through it, but I can see my finger through the other side of the glass, so it's not opaque either. Well, whaddya know... it looks like a nice WC IPA! Not really surprising at all, but I do appreciate beers like this even in the current beer market. Gives me a similar vibe to 3 Floyds Alpha King in terms of pour, which is a good thing. I must say, however, before we continue... I am disappointed by the relative oldness of these cans. I also really dislike 6-pack boxes that don't have the date of the product inside the box stamped anywhere on the outside because I have no clue how fresh the contents are until it's too late. Still, this is almost 10%, so I'm holding out hope that being two months old will not do much to it.

Upfront wallop of intense, sticky pine resin and loads of sugared grapefruit backed up by some grassiness and herbal undertones in the nose. Happy to say that I think this might actually still be pretty good after eight (plus) weeks in the can, which I guess isn't really that weird when you consider it's probably intended to be rather shelf-stable. Orange peel and some light mango come out as it warms a bit, and overall I'm pretty happy with the smell of this one.

Pretty hefty bitterness following a quick flash of sweet malt in the mid-palate. Solid feel with a bit of mouth-coating graininess and a big punch of hops in the finish, bringing out prominent pomelo/grapefruit elements with a lingering pine resin quality. I like that this actually seems to drink a little below its weight, as it leans a bit crisper than I expected. There is definitely still a slight syrupiness but it's not enough to affect how Denogginizer drinks. I actually kind of like the bend towards a sweeter/fuller mouthfeel in the initial section of each sip, because the contrast with the dryness in the finish is satisfying and approachable for such a large IPA. Good stuff. Don't regret getting a sixer. I think it struggles a little to stand out, but it's not a bad fridge-staple big IPA. Just wish it were a bit fresher, but it is what it is.