Northern Monk: Glory: Triple IPA (England: IIPA: 10.5% ABV)
Visual: Hazy lemon to apricot. Huge yellow white head.
Nose: Big hops. Solid bitterness. Slight granite. Lightly floral. Light gherkin. Oily hops. Apricot.
Body: Peach syrup. Oily hops. Good bitterness. Crushed Blackpool rock. Custard slices. Slight rock character. Pineapple. Smoke. Prickly hops. Gherkin. Kiwi. Apples. Greenery. Apricot.
Finish: Crushed raspberry hard sweets. Hop oils. Gherkin. Custard. Kiwi. Dried apricot. Peat.
Conclusion: This a thick and oily (Triple? Double? However many 10.5% really is) IPA. The malt character is thick with lots of mouthfeel heaviness and with that some custard sweetness. However, unusually for a 10% and up IPA, for roughly half the time the sweetness is actually beaten into the background.
The front flavours are the oily hops and bitterness – showing greenery and very … damnit I have to use the term… very dank as they say. That oily hop character is the dominant element – almost smokey, oily heavy hops. It can be almost peaty at times, though not as intense in that aspect – it is in feel as much as flavor in a lot of ways.
There is sweetness though – dried fruit and peach syrup which either hits on the front, or comes out again if the beer is held. The malt even brings out some big, intensely sweet Blackpool rock like notes at time – however often these notes will slip back down leaving the hop oil character to take precedent.
Over time there are releasing moments from the oily hops – you get green fruit – kiwi, apple mixed with pineapple and apricot, though still matched by greenery hop notes. For such a big beer this feels like most of what it gets from the malt is feel not flavor.
This is intense, swinging between the two poles of dark and fruity. The only real flaw is that it never reaches a nice balance between the two, instead showcasing one or the other at a time. If you are happy with swinging, intense flavor then this is lovely stuff.
Background: OK, I love IPAs,but the term triple IPA always confused me – this is just over 10%, is a standard IPA meant to be under 4% then? Naming conventions, huh? Anyway, Northern Monk has been a good go to, so this seemed like a nice chance to try a big beer and have a fair chance of it working out well. Another one grabbed from Independent Spirit and drunk while chatting with friends on Skype.
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