Saint Arnold Brewing Company's Divine Reserve No. 11

Hey--y'all wouldn't happen to know where there's a local beer store that has a few bottles of DR 11 squirreled away for sale, would you?

I do. Suck it.

I'm glad to buy a few singles of this, since the DR 6 was a complete disaster in my opinion. I know it wasn't in your opinion. Feel free to write your opinions down somewhere. And yes, I know 6 was a barley wine and 11 is an imperial IPA. But you'll be hard pressed to point out any substantive differences in the two styles.

This one, however, is sitting next to me in a glass smelling much better than DR 6. It seems to be malt-forward so far, with a bigger, sweeter malt profile in the smell than you could ever get through the pine sap in a glass that they called DR 6. Big body with a nice solid bitterness that doesn't drown out everything else. Great malt backbone in what I would call a malt-forward barleywine or IIPA.

Probably the best beer St. A's has ever made. Much better than their standards, and with increased capacity I look forward to bigger batches and maybe even bombers of their bigger beers like this.

/relieved

Dogfish head's Burton Baton

A blend of Old Ale and Imperial IPA? Where in the Hell did they decide to come up with that? I could have sworn I had this before, but maybe I swore off Dogfish before it became widely available in Texas. Didn't know it was an IPA, at least in part, or I might not have ignored it. Then again, who knows what it will actually be, based on their penchant for mislabeling styles.

Pours a loosely filtered deep reddish amber with a nice tan head. Sweet and floral, like a decent IPA should smell--I guess the Old Ale tones it down a bit from the Imperial IPA. The 10% ABV comes out in the smell the more it warms. And in the taste. Otherwise it has a decent feel to it, with plenty of malt that translates into the taste well. It has a fair amount of hops as well, but it's well-balanced and well thought out. Probably the best Dogfish beer I've had.

Oskar Blue' Gubna Imperial IPA

Sweet. Heard about this one, but just now found it at Spec's. Glad to see Oskar Blues expanding./

Pours a deep, clear amber with a nice tan head. Slow carbonation, hopefully due to a big body.

I guess my nose isn't working, because I can barely smell anything from this one.

Taste may be gone too, because although there's quite a bit of bitterness I don't really get anything else from it.

I'll revisit this one in a few days.

Harpoon Brewery's Leviathan Imperial IPA

I've heard a lot about this beer, but couldn't find it in Texas. Finding any Harpoon beer was difficult, but this one was pretty much nowhere for me. So, I was glad to see it at Spec's today.

Pours a light amber with a large-celled tan head that sticks. The color and clarity are disappointing for an imperial IPA, but the big head that doesn't thin tells me there may be more to it than the rest of the appearance would indicate. Almost no carbonation, and what there is is very slow so there might be more body than the looks show.

Great grassy hops smell. definitely bigger than a standard pale or IPA, and it's clean. Not muddled, it's a crisp, bitter grassiness that fades a bit to reveal a slightly sweet malt.

Surprising. Aside from the head, it looks wimpy. But uber-filtration aside, this beer is a great example of the style and lives up to its hype. One of few beers that I can say that about. You get a solid bitter zap that is slightly grassy, a heavy feel to the body, and a sweet malt backbone to finish it off. Probably the most surprising part is that even as it warms, which brings out the sweetness in the malt a bit more, there is almost no hint of the 9.3% ABV that many beers would be absolutely unable to hide. Many imperial stouts with a huge roasted or coffee flavor can't hide the alcohol this well.

Great beer. I had one or two set aside to give to a buddy, but no more. I'm keeping them.