Kelso Imperial IPA
KelSo Beer Company

 

Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a copper/orange color with a 1 inch head. Smell is of pine, malts. Taste is of pine, resin, malts are present, just a touch of alcohol. Feels medium/full bodied in the mouth and overall is a solid beer that may be a bit to easy drinking for 10% abv.

The CANQuest (tm) is finally getting back on track! I feel sort of overwhelmed by the backlog, but at the same time, I am heartened by all of the craft CANs that are awaiting my attention. This one came from one of my favorite local places, the Friendly Greek Bottle Shop (FGBS).

From the CAN: "Intricately Crafted[,] Simply Good Est Brooklyn 2006"; "100 IBU 9 SRM"; "A Double IPA with bold flavors of citrus and pine. Warming, with a smooth, mellow finish"; "We wanted a beer to really sip on. Lots of 'c' hops. Cascade, Columbus, Citra, with some Simcoe and Amarillo thrown in. All layered onto some English Maris Otter malt for depth of flavor. The result is an assertive combination of citrus, pine, tropical fruit, and malt. Simply Good. That's KelSo BEER."

Their Mosaic IPA fought me on the Crack! of the vent & this one gave me a fingertip spritz, indicative of a brimful craft CAN, which it was. Nice. I went with a slow, gentle, C-Line Glug into the awaiting glass to celebrate. Unbidden, it formed just under two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, tawny head with very good retention, leaving nice lacing in its wake. Color was Deep Amber/Light Copper to Copper (SRM = > 13, < 17) with NE-quality clarity. Nose smelled like being in the middle of a pine forest in the Winter, with snow falling and a coolness to each inhalation. KelSo Imperial IPA - get the sensation! Mouthfeel was big & full, like a dollop had been scooped onto my tongue, but about on par for the style. The taste was mostly pine with a light caramel malt sweetness. It CAN be tricky to use caramel malts since they CAN impart a greater sweetness than intended. Man, this was bitter, but still quite pleasant, IMHO. Warming, I sensed a light cattiness, as though Simcoe the naughty kitty had snuck in to do her business. Bad kitty! I took a deep breath & was rewarded with an icy coolness that extended from my sinuses into my belly. Phew! This was definitely no playin' around. Finish was cool-hot & very dry. This may not be for everyone, but neither are tarts & sours for me. YMMV.

 

A: The beer is dark orange-amber in color. It poured with a finger high light beige colored head. This died down, levin a thin layer of bubbles covering the surface, a narrow collar, and some lacing running down the sides of the glass.
S: Moderate aromas of caramel malts are present in the nose along with notes of pine and hints of vanilla, the latter of which stand out in the finish.
T: The taste follows the smell, having strong flavors of caramel malts that are accompanied by notes of piney hops and hints of grapefruit hops. There is a light to moderate amount of bitterness. Only faint bits of alcohol are perceptible.
M: It feels a bit more than medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This Imperial IPA is quite malty—making it a refreshing change of pace in this day and age—and it also does a very good job at hiding nearly all of the alcohol from the taste.

Serving type: can

Poured from a 12oz can into a Teku glass.

Look is a slightly hazy amber with a white billowy head.

Aroma is astrigent lemon malts.

Taste is pretty well balanced. Upfront molasses malts and then the hops open up at the end.

 

12 oz can, 6-16-17 stamped on the bottom

Pours hazed slightly darker then average amber, some floaties doin their thing, lasting khaki cap, leaves a thicker collar and low sheeting.

Nose is on the Maltier side, with a resiny hop back note.

This a thick and viscous brew, on the "hot" side with noticeable alcohol. More malts, with notes of maple and vanilla on the palate.

This is a malt bomb...kind of like an imperial octoberfest, with an alcohol note....meh, not my favorite DIPA that is out there. So many better ones out there

 

 

Brief initial impression:

"Kelso Imperial India Pale Ale."

10% ABV. "A double IPA with bold malts and huge hops."

CAN: Canned 01/16/17. 12 oz (which - perhaps interestingly to all of 8 people on the planet - Kelso actually rounds DOWN to 354ml when writing the metric conversion). Standard pull-tab. Cost a whopping $3 per can at a Food Town in Brooklyn, NY.

Maltier than expected, but I guess you have to go big on the malts to hit 10% ABV. Hop flavour is odd...a little herbal, some hints of evergreen/sappy hop flavour, candied orange peel. Syrupy pale and caramalt sweetness keeps any hop bitterness in check, but it's not all that pungent in terms of hops to begin with. Still, going English Otter on malt backbone was a bad decision. There's some rindy flavours that just don't work at all in this build, but they're really the least of this beer's problems. There aren't off-flavours or anything, but the imbalance is pretty harsh and there's no vividness or expressiveness here. Hop profile is uninspired overall; I'd guess they threw in Centennial and Magnum if I had to, but I'm pretty shit at guessing hops.

Pretty underwhelming fare, with some booziness dragging it down. There's not much here for the discerning drinker in terms of depth of flavour or complexity, but it's not terrible for what it is, just too malty and not true to style. I guess Kelso equated a high ABV with quality. I definitely wouldn't buy another $3 can, but then it is cheaper than the $5 16 oz cans of imperial IPAs a lot of New York City breweries are putting out.

Price aside, this is mediocre at best. Price included, I'm shocked this has succeeded since 2012 in the NYC market.

C / AVERAGE

 

Appearance: hazy dark orange in color with a big fluffy head that slowly falls to a thick surface foam. Plenty of lace develops on the glass.

Smell: alcohol and pine create a dank aroma.

Taste: big sweet malt base with grapefruit, pine, some wood tones, and strong warming alcohol. Bitterness is strong.

Mouthfeel: heavy bodied beer. Light crispness throughout with a very dry finish. Long lasting boozy aftertaste.

Overall: I found this to be a bit unbalanced and the alcohol plays too big of a flavor role here.

-cloudy amber-orange can pour with a wisp of top-foam. There are a lot of suspended particles in this glass. Alcohol is prominent in the nose (not so good) along with a bit of caramel. Flavors include pleasantly burnt brown sugar and some hop resin. The alcohol heat and accompanying "sweetness" is too much for me...I like Kelso brews, but am sorry that I have three more of these.

 

 

 

12oz can from Noble Grains NYC on the UES
Pours a dark cloudy amber with lingering white head and thick lacing, smells like sweet heavy caramel malts and booze with a mild general bitterness, taste is very malt forward and sweet, a very mild citrus hard candy with almost no bitterness, , full bodied and luscious on the tongue. Tastes similar to a barley wine, very sweet in a pleasant and comforting kind of way, a unique and velvety caramel cake of an IPA.

 

L 12 oz can smoke grey matte texture. beer itself glows with a grainy, pumpkin-y glow in a dogfishhead pint glass. Opaque. 3-inch, taupe head behaves like overcooked oatmeal.
S: uggghghghh, hops, grapefruit, MALT, o lots more other hops. so strong and so pure! makes me love hops more ^_^
T: exquisite. excellent. exuberant. other e words. Utter balance. For the strength of this beer, it is just soo balanced.
F: comforting. re-committing, re-affirming.
O: perfect

To those who might claim this to be nutty probably actually live on the east coast or midwest and don't quite get the west coast mentality, or, while we're at it, any mentality other than their selfish own lollll

Anyway, all morals pedestals aside, this beer wins, then loses, then wins back, then retires for eternity into infinite beer soaked bliss, and automatically transforms its drinker into a dramatically more compassionate human. It has the potential to blow out the palate. That's how strong it is. But comparitively, palate blow out risk is low on this one, due to its overall enormous quality. Crafted with suuuch care and attention. It looks so so gorgeous, opaque, sublime, and someHOW drinks even better. cheers to BA and a huge Cheers and Thanks to Kelso for this one.