NOTES: 22 oz. bomber. I was psyched to see this limited edition Troegs in my local bottle shop. My local beermonger pointed it out, saying “this won’t last long.”
I think he’s right on a number of levels.
STYLE: Imperial Pale Ale
ABV: 7.5%
APPEARANCE: Golden, straw. Nothing dramatic or rich. Extremely clear. Looks like it could be any old pale ale.
HEAD: Two fingers at the beginning of the pour. Looked promising, but it dissipated within minutes.
LACING: Splotches here and there. Not like some.
NOSE: Enormous grass and citrus. Lots of pineapple in the nose, and a good amount of what I’d call “lawnmower after an afternoon of use.”
TASTE: Citrus and grassy hop forward, and light on the malt sweetness. It’s grass and citrus for the most part, with a fair bit of alcohol astringency, especially as the beer warmed.
MOUTHFEEL: Light body and highly effervescent. Drying.
DRINKABILITY: This beer gets high marks of drinkability. It’s light, yet tasty. It’s 7.5%, but not too astringent.
RATING: I appreciate that Troegs went for a strong, hop-forward pale ale. I’ve stopped buying regular old pale ales, so it’s about time someone started imperializing them. Because it’s on the lighter side, it’s extremely drinkable, and yet it leaves you with a nice buzz. 3 hops.
ALEHEADS 
It seems to me that you expected this to be an India Pale Ale instead of an Imperial Pale Ale, as it is. I think it is more drinkable due to it being a pale ale rather than an IPA.
Thanks, Jeff. I stand corrected!
My excuse is that when they use the term “IPA” on the bottle, I don’t think “Imperial Pale Ale.” I think “India Pale Ale,” as would most sentient beings. Plus, BA has it listed as an American India Pale Ale.
My other excuse is that I’m completely ignorant.
Be that as it may, it does drink much more like a Pale Ale than an IPA, and I therefore shouldn’t be judging it against the likes of the great IPAs.Double IPAs.
While I can vouch for the fact that Mashtun is indeed an idiot, I can’t really find fault with him in this case. If I saw the letters “IPA” on a beer label, I’d be mentally comparing the brew to Sculpin and Jai Alai too…
Regardless of the odd naming convention choice, I’m actually kind of curious to see if imperializing standard pale ales catches on. Deschutes has been making small batches of Mirror Mirror (essentially a doubled up version of their Mirror Pond Pale Ale) for a while now, but they just call it a barleywine.
Imperialize everything!
I don’t think you can really imperialize a pale ale. Other breweries do this too with things like “double pale ale”. It just doesn’t make much sense to me. A pale ale with more hops, buffed up to 7.5%, is essentially an India pale ale, like it or not.
It’s like if a British brewer made a “double ordinary bitter.” Well that would be a special bitter, or an extra special bitter, right?
Very nice write up. I hope to grab a bottle here in Wisconsin. I thought the initials should be “IIPA“ for Imperial India pale ale? We should all have a boomer and discuss it like true aleheads.