Cask Conditioned Big Island IIPA
Island Brewing Company

Poured into 14 oz flute at just abive room temp which was perfect. had a small white head with a nice amber body. It had a nice citrus, sweetness and good hops of coure. Wellbalanced. The review below was correct..it oipened up as it got warmer. i sat outside in the sun and within 5 minutes it had some real flavor bursting out. it tasted like a GREEN FLASH IIPA to me. pretty darn good.
100 IBU!

A: Poured into a stemmed/fluted glass (nice touch btw) via beer engine from cask. Room temperature. Nice offwhite color, with a hint of caramel amber, in the head. The beer itself was caramel to brownish honey color with no transparency what-so-ever. Its hard to explain the color as it had a haziness to it, however it wasnt cloudy (if that makes sense). Its almost like it was butterscotch in color. The bubbles slowly creeped to the top as I sat there looking at this beautiful pour, almost like the beer was too thicke and the carbonation was fighting to be let go. It was cool.

S: at first nostril, it was floral mixed with a hint of grapefruit and really good kind bud towards the end. As I swirled it around during its trip down to my gut, it opened up and I could smell some bananas and caramel sweetness, always with that tang of grapefruity hop.

T: Right off the bat the hop bomb dropped, at 100 IBUs, this beer was full of resinated hopiness. However it wasnt overwhelming, at least not too me it wasnt. It had a mellow plateau of grapefruit tang and wonderful sweet caramel apples. It was actually mellowed after 1/2 glass and took on more of the sweet side. Complex flavor, so I dont know if my descriptions could or would do its taste bouqet any justice. However, after every swig, the one constant amonsgt the ever changing variables in the flavor profile was the -OH. Its a strong beer at 9.5 and it doesnt let you forget that.

M: It was a good IIPA, however it was a bit too "young" for me and I would like to taste this again after 1 month aging. Its a one-off of a seasonal brew for Island Brewing, so I doubt the cask will last that long. For me, the grapefruit taste lingered in my mouth too long. However this could very well be due to the fact that it was served cellar temp and not chilled, which would have helped with that.

D: High -OH content and a bit too strong of a grapefruit taste only afforded me one 16 oz pour. I would try it again however, and hope to tomorrow after work. All in all it was a pleasure to try it and I hope to score some bottles of the regular non-cask seasonal Big Island IIPA soon.