Fun Homebrew Review: Centennial IPA - T Minus 16 months . . .

I wrote this homebrew review for a member of our homebrewing club not too long ago. It was a neat review, so I thought I would repost it here. Enjoy.

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A friend gave me a bottle of his Imperial Centennial IPA more than a year ago now. I remember him saying that he did not know what to call it, as it really turned out a bit more like a barleywine than a true Imperial IPA. I suggested "800-pound gorilla" because the beer has so many hops in there, but my friend wisely avoided the primate reference. I also remember him saying that he wondered what would happen if the beer was laid down to age, but that it was unlikely he would do so, as he tends to drink them before letting them age. So, unbeknownst to my friend, I aged the beer and am finally getting a chance to drink it.

The beer pours an amber/red color that is almost edging on brown. The beer is very clear and I can easily see my hand through it. There is definitely carbonation in the beer, but the head is thin (about a quarter-inch thick) and course. The head lasted for about two minutes before slowly dissolving into the beer, though it left some lacing on my glass. There is a definite hop aroma to the beer, but it is rather thin. I sort of expected this, as hop flavor and aroma drop off as hoppy beers age. Many people often say you should drink IPAs and other hoppy beers quickly to get the hop presence. I also smell brown sugar, or a dark belgian candy sugar.

The IPA tastes very good. It has a definite bitter component, which nicely balances the sweetness from the imperial quality of the beer. As expected,a strong hop presence is absent from the beer. Aside from the bitterness, I don't get much hop character that I would expect in an IPA. I taste a dark sugar component, but without all of the sweetness. The beer finishes slightly sweet, but the sweetness does not really build on the tongue, so it is still easy to finish the glass.

Interestingly, the beer tastes a lot more like a belgian tripel than a barleywine, which differs from my friend's original characterization. The flavor is similar enough that I would probably classify it as a tripel, if I did not know the beer's history. The only thing that is not quite on style is that the beer has a bit more bitterness than a tripel would, so it might be an "American tripel."

Thank you for sharing your beer with me. I hope you like your "surprise review," even though I spilled the beans that I was going to write it a couple of weeks back. Cheers!