Quasar Imperial IPA
Drake's Brewing Co.

A color that is in the maltier, darker, more orange and amber range, 1/3" white head. This is from the ibu and crystal malt years. Had this at the Bistro's 10th annual double ipa fest in 2010. Came off almost like a winter warmer, there was plenty of malty notes sniffable right out the gates. Or how about Celebration Ale? That one has a lot of toffee and pine tree notes aroma wise.

Taste, yeah, its like hoppy kind of malty beer. A winter ipa. Has all those mild caramel and toffee notes alongside a substantial amount of piney C hops, leaning towards Chinook and Centennial from what I get here. It was an interesting beer, but I can see why it got retired, whereas the other 2 kegs they brought (Hopocalypse and Denogginizer) are still in full production. The heavier malt character seemed to temper the 85 ibu on this one decently. This is definitely a meal of an ipa. The alcohol heat was average for a 8.3% beer at the time, but would seem hot compared to a lot of the dipas out there in 2019.

On-tap at Pizza Port Carlsbad

A: The beer pours amber in color with a finger of off-white head but a very impressive amount of lacing on the glass.

S: Incredibly sweet on the nose. Lots of caramel, toffee, and brown sugar. I get a decent amount of grapefruit and orange peel, along with some sweet orange flesh. Maybe a bit of tropical fruit.

T: Big brown sugar, toffee, and caramel presence on the palate. There's even a bit of chocolate in there. A mild tropical fruit hop flavor and some grapefruit, though it seems sort of candied, which fits in with the sweet motif.

M: The body is pretty full and heavy for an IPA. The carbonation is moderate to high.

D: Way too sweet for how I like my DIPAs. More barleywine-like than anything.

had this at the Hopyard in Pleasanton.

appearance - a deep, dark copper. the head didn't seem to survive the journey from tap to table.

smell - piney hops, a little more spice notes than your average CA IPA.

taste - good, but sort of sweet, murky (?), it's not as clean-tasting or well defined as I'd hoped. A piney, earthy hop bite backed up by a malty sweet aftertaste. The malt and hops flavors seemed to separate in my mouth, resulting in somewhat unbalanced beer.

mouthfeel - medium carbonation, maybe a little lower. This made the beer seem a little heavier than it was.

drinkability - one was enough, I'm glad I tried it, it wasn't bad, but they were better beers on tap and I had to move on.

Saw this on tap at the Hopyard in San Ramon and had to partake.

Came to the table in a pint glass with a nice caramal color and small foamy head. A lot of head retention and a small layer of foam throughout the session to keep me company.

Hoppy, sticky-sweet candy and floral aroma.

Bitter taste with a touch of sweetness on the swallow. The bitterness kicks in on the buds and there is a slight salivation happening which makes me yearn for another sip.

Smooth mouthfeel even with the intense bitterness.

One pint was definitely enough for me. The sweet and hoppy combo was a little tiresome by the end of the glass. A nice beer to try though for a hop-head.