• Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Country: USA
• Style: Imperial IPA
• ABV: 8.2 %
• Size: 355 ml
• Bought from: Barley Wine, Copenhagen
• Beer Advocate
• RateBeer

After a week of fermentations and analysing wort (I love my job!), I thought it would be nice to sit down and relax with a nice and hoppy IPA. This is one of the beers I brought home from my trip to Copenhagen in August. I’ve heard lots of good stuff about Lagunitas before, but have never had a chance to try them, so am looking forward to this. This seems to be categorized as an Imperial IPA on the various beer sites online, but the bottle claims the beer is only 59 IBU, so I am skeptical. I have no information on the ingredients used, so I have no idea what to expect. The bottle states that the original gravity was 1.080, which gives a final gravity of around 1.017-1.018 with the ABV of 8.2%. Not too dry, and definitely in my ballpark. Let’s see how this tastes! Unfortunately there are no freshness indicators on this, so I have no clue how old this bottle is.

[easyreview title=”Lagunitas Maximus” cat1title=”Appearance” cat1detail=”The beer pours clear and with an orange-amber color. There was no yeast sediment in the bottle, so guess the beer has been filtered. A minimal off-white head is formed, that disappears as fast as it appeared.” cat1rating=”3″ cat2title=”Smell” cat2detail=”As I open the bottle I can feel some hop aroma reach my nose. The actual beer features a strong orange and tangerine hop aroma, with some tones of apricots, tropical fruits, resin and sweet caramel in the background as well. I’ve never actually come across a beer with this kind of aroma before (i.e. this strong of an orange aroma). Interesting, but not among my favorites.” cat2rating=”3.5″ cat3title=”Taste” cat3detail=”The flavor begins with a sweet, caramelly, bready maltiness, that together with the hop tones of citrus (orange in the lead again, with some lemon and tangerine) reminds me of some citrus candy drops. You can find some grassy and herbal tones in the hoppiness as well, but they are quite subdued. The flavor ends with a sweet and only slightly bitter finish. I felt this was really imbalanced, and way too sweet to be fully enjoyable. This would also have need lots more bitterness to back up the sweetness. Again an interesting flavor, but definitely not amongst my favorites, especially with the poor balance.” cat3rating=”3″ cat4title=”Mouthfeel” cat4detail=”The beer has a medium-full body and a medium carbonation level. The sweetness makes this a bit difficult to drink. At least the alcohol is well hidden.” cat4rating=”3″ summary=”Definitely disappointed with this one, as I feel this would have been so much better with some more bitterness and a slightly drier finish. The beer featured some interesting hop tones in the aroma and flavor, mostly focusing on orange and tangerine. I have no idea what hops Lagunitas have used, but maybe it could be Summit hops? I will have to give Lagunitas another chance if I see any of their other beers in the future, but this beer was at least no to my taste.”]