Hoppe (Imperial Extra Pale Ale)

The wife was kind enough to cart this back from Hilton Head, SC for me, just a few days before ST hit GA – typical!
22 oz bottle in the usual screen printed ST style.
Pour is a beautiful, golden clear body with a smashing white head that gives some nice sticky lace – decent retention considering the ABV of the beer. Looks nice, especially the depth of color.
Nose is plenty of sweet alcohol (and not much else) and this is exactly how the taste manifests itself. This is not a subtle beer, but with a serious decrease in ABV it could be a delicious one. All of the elements are there with a smooth look and a nice body, and also some good, solid malt bases, but the alcohol is just abusive after about half of the bottle. For me it’s too much and the solvent aspect of the beer overwhelms all the good stuff. Syrupy mouthfeel.
Close, but no cigar on this one for me. Perhaps as a six percent beer this would hit it, but for now it feels too fusel for me. A bit “rough”, and gave me the feeling of a high gravity, malt liquor and not in a good way.

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05/01/2010
Format:
bottle
ABV: 8.0 %
Appearance: 4
Taste: 2.5
Mouthfeel: 3.5
Smell: 3.5
Overall: 2.5
Total: 2.88
Series Name:
Year:

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