Double Cannon
Heavy Seas Beer

The clear reddish copper colored beer pours out into a Duvel glass with a 3/4” ivory head that leaves a ring of spotty lacing on the sides of the glass as it slowly recedes to a thin cap of foam and then eventually to a thin irregular shaped island of foam on the liquid. Sipping creates two arches of lacing and lots of small patches and legs of lacing.

The aromas contain some pine resin, some citrus—both fruit and zest—and a backing of rich toasted caramel malt.

The flavors are much as expected from the nose with the pine resin, the citrus zest and fruit. The sweetness of the rich caramel malt backbone is backed up by some spicy earthy bitterness that prevents the malt from becoming cloyingly sweet and which definitely makes its presence known, but without rasping the tongue. The alcohol is well concealed until the warmth of its effects begins to spread.

The mouthfeel is on the heavy side of medium bodied and slightly prickly from the moderate carbonation. The medium length finish begins as the caramel malt sweetness begins to recede to leave the citric zest, citrus and pine resin more apparent in the long dry firmly bitter ending that eventually seems to become mostly from pine resin with some spicy, earthy character.

Overall a big solid beer that might be thought of as being a classic East Coast DIPA style in that there is a strong malt backbone that brings caramel sweetness to the mix of flavors and does a lot more than just soften or hide any tongue rasp from the hops. The beer has a fairly complex aroma/flavor profile that is firm and reasonably well balanced with some nice dry pine resin and earthy bitterness. The beer is fairly temperature sensitive in the sense that the aromas/flavors become much more tightly integrated as the beer warms, making them harder to tease out but also more enjoyable. On the whole I’ve enjoyed this beer and am fine with having another to revisit this review. Whether I’ll be buying more in the future is doubtful since I prefer the hop-malt balance of the Rough Seas Loose Cannon IPA.

 

Deep gold, light haze. Sweet malt and hop aroma. Robust flavor of candied orange and pine. Goes down fairly easy for 9.5%. Lacks subtlety but packs a lot of flavor with minimal resin burn. Much better than the ultra-fruity, high-gravity beers in the Voodoo Ranger mold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can dated best by 7/19/23 into pint glass. Pours a quite hazy honey-gold with a persistent off-white head. Minimal lacing. Initial impression is caramel malts, citrus, and a touch of pine resin. Mouthfeel is smooth, thick, and sticky. Finish fades to slightly sweet resinous citrus rind. Overall, a very enjoyable DIPA.

 

Solid off white head that lasts in an uneven but thick lacing. medium amber body. Plentiful bitter notes mixed with caramel malts and toffee.

 

 

 

So I start drinking the can right, and it smells a little old but I take a sip and tastes honestly pretty damn good still but maybe smidge past its absolute prime. I look at the bottom of the can out of curiosity to find it says "best by 7/31/21. So for being over a year past its freshest by date I'd say it's probably pretty damn great when it's fresh

 

 

 

Deep orange with two fingers of head. Nice malty nose, rich, almost syrupy body. Nicely hopped, no grapefruit (I state this for others like me who dislike the current wave of making every IPA taste like a grapefruit beverage). Clean aftertaste, with an almost ESB bitterness in the end. Nicely balanced.

My wife and I are very deep into DIPA, or Imperial IPA, or whatever you choose to call a high alcohol IPA. Thing is we like a lot of hops, and the best way to achieve balance and harmony is by having a strong, malt backbone, especially if they use caramel or chocolate malts. Our Benchmark DIPA is Dogfish 90 Minute.

While this brew is not Dogfish 90 Minute, it's pretty darn good, and definitely worth a try. I just discovered Double Cannon last week at my local beer supplier. I just purchased my second 6-pack today, and I'm drinking one as I write this... just to verify their consistency. Just as good as the one from last week. Ausgezeichnet.