Double Ball & Chain IPA
The Blue Ridge Brewing Co.

Poured from the tap at Blue Ridge Brewery to a light orange with a thick off-white head that lingered thru the entire glass and left excellent lacing. The nose, while not overly dominant, was the expected citrusy grapefruit, while the mouthfeel was thick, full (almost syrupy) that is at first bitter, but followed up soon by a touch of malty sweetness. Taste follows the citrusy grapefruit nose, though a little better pronounced, and this all rounds to a finsih that is long, warming and just a tad soapy.

I've definitely had better DIPAs, but this is not bad at all.

On tap at the Blue Ridge Brewing Company, Greenville, SC, 12/26/2008.

Appearance: A deep, copper-colored body, hazy, robust-looking, with huge amounts of sticky, clingy, bubbly, three-dimensional lacing left over from a two-finger, slightly off-white head. The lacing absolutely coats the sides of the glass. They're cloud-like, moist yet sticky, foamy, frothy, sticking equally both to the sides of the glass as well as to the slowly receding head, almost sloping down gradually to join the two.

Aroma: Very faint, unfortunately. It's predominantly fruity, with your traditional citrus, as well as hints of pineapple, strawberries, and a handful of other light hop esters on a bed of biscuity caramel.

Taste: Very, very sweet, thick, rich, and malty. The malts are heavily roasted, very caramel-like. The bitterness is mild, almost imperceptible amidst the sea of hop flavors, which, incidentally, are piney, grapefruity, minty, and very reminiscent of strawberries in places. Nice balance between hop flavors and malt notes, though it is almost completely lacking in bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Thick, though not quite syrupy as it is very well carbonated, enough to lend a prickly edge (and since there's no bitterness, you know it's the effervescence).

Drinkability: 10.5%s no where to be found, which is nice. On the other hand, the near complete lack of bitterness does take this one down a few notches, as it was almost fruit juice-esque in places rather than beer-like. Toss some hops in early in the boil on this one and you'd have a really, really solid DIPA though.

Wow, so long I have waited to be able to try a high gravity from Blue Ridge. I knew Jay had been working on it, and new it would debut tonight, so you know I had to be there. Got in an ordered me up one straight away...

A - Poured a deep hazy orange amber, nice two inch head formed on top, with really great retention. Seemed as if the head on this thing just would not fade. Finally relented leaving behind tons of gooey sticky lace in its wake almost completly obscuring the glass. This was looking real real good from the start.

S - Lots of hops right from the start. Some nice rich pine like resin flavors with a subtle yet noticeable sweetness to it. Good citrus, orange in the back. Very nice and very fresh aroma, well hell it was the first batch right?

T - Great, just really great. Smooth and not overpowering or overdone. Had a great balance to it. Not the usual kill you with bitterness double IPA, this was done slick and nice. Great mixing in of the alcohol, as it really could not even be found here. Awesome hop mix, really fresh and a good dose of sugar, nice and sweet, great work here.

M - Super super smooth. Crisp clean dry finish. It had one of those you could drink all night long feels to it. Not slick or watered down, good sticky resin like finish. This was done so well, cannot say that enough.

D - Superb. I could have done this all night. It was just realy well put together not to bitter, strong or sweet, just really good.

Overall I was so damn impressed with this. This was done so well and such a good IPA. Jay deserves mad props for this one. I would say it was the best beer I have ever tasted coming out of the upstate, no lie. This was just great. If it is any indication of the direction he is going, you all better look out!