Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Jamey 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 Jamey 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 Jamey, 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 definately 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 disolving into the beer, though it left some lacing on my glass.  There is a defininate 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 definate 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 Jamey'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, Jamey, for sharing your beer with me.  I hope you like your "suprise review," even though I spilled the beans that I was going to write it a couple of weeks back.  Cheers!

Thanks for the surprise, Tom. 

That was an experiment where I was trying to see what exactly would be the result if I did a Centennial-only big IPA.  I liked it, but that batch turned the corner for me of mixing hops in big American hoppy beers. 

As a side note, I've tried to reduce the number of malts and grain adjuncts I use in batches because they don't stand out very well.  The grains just, although with some exceptions, mix together and it is hard to pick out their individual contributions.

I've gone the opposite way with hops.  Mixing the hops has given my beers more complexity and depth. I like hitting some traditional citrus flavors off more woody hops, and there are many other endless possibilities. 

I need to revisit this one because in going through the 8 cases of bottled and cellaring beer in my house last weekend, I found the last bottle of the Centennial IPA.  I look forward to trying that out and comparing.

A very cool post.  Thanks.

err...  wouldn't that be T Plus 16 Months?

You are correct, Hoptical, but I thought the name would be cute, given the reference to the space program.  You are right, though, my title implies that I tasted the beer over a year before it was made.

I am good . . . but not that good . . .