Alaskan Imperial IPA

Alskan Imperial IPA or Double or DIPA is brewed by the Alaskan Brewing Company of Juneau, Alaska. The Imperial IPA is part of their limited edition Pilot Series. The Pilot Series is the company's way of experiementing and perfecting new beers. While called an Imperial IPA, the beer's IBU of 60 barely reaches the Imperial status. The typical range for an Imperial is 60-120 IBUs.

The Alaskan Brewing Company is one of the older micro breweries in the US, having been founded in 1986. They also claim to be the 67th brewery in the country, althought I'm not sure if that includea macro brews. Either way, there are about 1,500 breweries in the US today, so 67th is OG status. The pre-prohibition peak of breweries wa 1,568.

For the travler, Alaska offers an 80 mile, round-trip Micro-Brew Beer Train.

 A friend picked this up from BevMo. It has an ABV of 8.5%.

The beer pours amber witha decent, slightly off white head with great lacings. The smell has roasted and sweet malts upfront with strong notes of earthy and citrus hops. The taste hits you with the sweet and roasted malts followed the a nice balance of bitter with the citrus hops and notes of the earthy hops. It's medium bodied with nice carbonation and even a bit oilly which is nice. I wonder if they used hop extract,

I enjoyed this beer. If you're looking for a DIPA with big bitter bite, this isn't it. But I enjoyed the big flavors of the hops and a nice balance of malt. I suggest you Try It.