During my short break I was able to focus on a few things that I had been neglecting such as friends, family, and cleaning the house. Not big things individually, but combined they have helped me hit the reset button. Like all things any time for reflection is good, no matter what you are reflecting on. It will give you the chance to look back and say, “so thats why.”
This is the case with Avery Brewing out of Colorado. To be honest I am not a big fan of really anything they have released in the past 2 years. I do not dislike them, I would just rather prefer something else. Now with that said, I was excited to hear they had an Imperial India Pale Ale out for a limited release (March-Aug). I have been on a serious hop kick lately and the packaging really caught my eye.
Here is the run down on Avery’s 22 oz. Maharaja IPA:
Price tag: $8.99 a bottle
ABV: A kick you in the nuts 10.54% seriously I got lit.
O.G.: 1.090 and heavy on the Carmel malt.
IBU: 102 units of strong hops. This was the exact reason why I picked up this brew.
Overall taste and complex: The hops in the brew were gorgeous. I love strong hops. However, what I do not like is when the brewer uses really sweet malts and sugar profiles to jack up the alcohol. Even with the hops shining through, the sweetness just killed me. I think after a pint I started to get a stomach ache from all the sugars. Though I did catch a nice buzz.
On the JP beer scale(1-10), I give this beer a 6.5. Though it was sweet, it was keeping with tradition with the IPA of being a high gravity beer and in this case a very sweet one. The reason I gave it the extra .5 was due strictly to the hops.
The Imperial Maharaja ale reminds me of Jenna Jameson in Zombie Strippers. At first you are really excited because A. Jenna is in it. B. It has zombie strippers. C. Who doesn’t like zombie strippers? When you first start watching this movie you are focusing in on all of the elements that makes the movie and really are not to concerned about the outcome. In your brain the parts should equal a great sum. Like this movie, the beer does not hold up to the ingredient hype. Both the movie and the beer (yes I was watching it while drinking this beer) just died off and made me slightly nausea’s at the end. So, if you like sweet and hoppy, this could be your jam. For me I feel the ingredients, much like Jenna, were rode out just too damn long. Like 70′s porn and the pet rock this beer is a limited engagement and as a community we are better off for that.
