Top Tastings 2010
ABV: 10.5%
Origin: Boulder, Colorado, USA
Website: www.averybrewing.com
Avery Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale
Regularly topping polls of the world’s best beers, this super-hopped pale ale comes from a Colorado brewery founded by home brewer Adam Avery in 1993, since much expanded and greatly admired for its cutting edge repertoire of extreme hop beers and barrel aged specialities. I picked up my ‘bomber’ bottle at Argonaut in Denver.
Made from two-row pale, caramel 120L and Victory barley malt, with Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Chinook hops added in numerous additions to a whopping 102 IBUs, this is a reddish copper beer with a fine yellowy off-white head, taking its name from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘Great King’. Unsurprisingly the aroma is pungently hop dominated, a complex haze of soapy, piny, coconut and fruit notes.
The smooth nectary palate soon develops a piny hop bite, with notes of citrus, wood polish and tropical fruit. The finish is drying but surprisingly rounded, with pungent and vivid resinous hop flavours and mint, though softened by an almost honeyed touch. It is indeed a very hoppy beer, but achieves an impressive delicacy around its vivid flavours which should explain why it’s held in high regard compared to some more aggressive entries in the genre.
Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/avery-the-maharaja-imperial-india-pale-ale/44485/
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