For those not familiar with Imperial IPAs I'll give you a brief description. Imperial IPAs also know as Double IPAs are stringer, hoppier variants of standard IPAs. Imperial IPAs generally run over 7.5% in alcohol content which tends to give them more of an alcohol taste and hides some of the hop profile!
Beer Advocate gives Rampant an 88
Now I'm not saying this is a bad beer, but when I first saw the launch on twitter I was expecting something way different than what I actually tasted! In fact I modeled my whole day after finding this beer! I took GQB7 to Terre Haute to Sushi Umi for lunch then went on a beer hunt! On the way over I nearly killed a small dog that ran out in from of me and thank the gods I didn't because I didn't want to watch GQB7 cry for the next half hour because some toy dog woke up in a mud puddle and realized it lived in West Terre Haute and decided to commit suicide via my truck! Well played dog well played! Dodged that bullet only to see a dude in a junk truck drive by me with a truck load full of junk topped off by a Pontiac Grand Am! That was seriously fucking odd! So after a brief discussion of the pros and cons of having two dicks instead of one and lunch we went on a beer quest for Rampant!
Hit Bourbon and Canal up and was shocked to find one 6er of 3 Floyds Alpha King, which I promptly grabbed. Then I noticed an end cap full of Windmer Brother's South by Northwest (SXNW) beer! I grabbed two bottles of that shit and I will cover that in a later post. For the record SXNW is probably one of the best beers I've ever had and at $13 a bottle it had better be! Sadly thought there was no Rampant at B&B so we hit up Baesler's where a freshly stocked shelf reveled to me a whole fresh stash of Rampant Imperial IPA!
The first thing that jumped out at me was the price; $4.99 for a 20oz bottle! I was shocked and thought what a bargain and grabbed two bottles! So I shuffled home, dropped my copilot off and went home and put one bottle on chill in the bar! I like to enjoy most of my IPAs at or slightly below room temp so after a few hours on chill I took the bottle out and placed in on the bar and went and had Joe's Pizza! So as I'm typing write now I'm drinking this beer!
As I popped the cap I noticed a nice and strong hoppy aroma coming out of the bottle! I looked at the label to see if there was an IBU rating but couldn't find one! I'm assuming it's lower than the 70 IBUs of Ranger but I can't say for sure! The color is a night light color almost close to that of a pilsner beer! The head was nice and foamy just like an IPA should be! I gave it a few swirls, let it sit for a moment and took a sip! I tasted a slight hoppiness but what disappointed me was the follow up...it tasted like wet grass or straw! Now some people would call that a complex taste, but I call that bullshit! If you're going to call something a double IPA then make it fucking taste like a double IPA! Instead it tastes like a dog just ate a shit load of grass and vomited it in my mouth! I have two pints of this shit to get through and at 8.5% it should give me and adequate buzz, but fuck a duck it won't be enjoyable! It tastes like a stronger version of Left Hand's Stranger Pale Ale! Uck!
Nice try New Belgium, but why the hell not just take Ranger and amp it up similar to what Oscar Blues does with Dale's Pale Ale in there amped up version Deviant Dale's? I think New Belgium did create a new beer, but it isn't an Imperial IPA to me, it's an abomination! That being said don't take my word for it try it for yourself!
Cheers!
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