Why hello there sweet, glorious, unholy hop bomb of epic epicness:
I’m not going to lie. I wish I were able to drink one of these right now. And by now, I mean whenever you happen to be reading this. Seriously: any time anyone is reading this. Or even when people aren’t reading this. I adore this beer.
Basic Info:
Name: Double Trouble
Origin: Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids, MI
Style: American Imperial/Double IPA
ABV: 9.4%
IBU: 86
I drank this: on tap at Waldo Pizza, KCMO
This is a perfume factory of a beer: the scent was intense, wafted everywhere around me, and smelled like a grove of citrus trees. Heavy citrus – largely sweet grapefruit and orange – with hints of grass around the edges.
Flavor-wise, it’s really citrussy with a clean hop flavor. When I say clean, this is in opposition to many Imperial IPAs, which have a really resinous edge to them – the Double Trouble somehow manages to be really strongly hopped without getting the chewy, sticky resin feeling. It’s one of the few beers I’ve ever had at this IBU level that didn’t coat my mouth. The rest of the flavor (well, what I could taste that wasn’t just glorious, glorious hops, that is) was pale malts of the sort that lend a sort of honeyed biscuit undertone. I noticed the malts more in the aftertaste. Their main purpose is to support the hops. This beer is fairly light-bodied for an Imperial IPA – like, it’s not light-bodied at all, but it’s light for an Imperial IPA. For a generic “beer,” it’s still fairly hefty. It’s not all the way to chewable.
For a beer this hoppy, it isn’t particularly bitter. There’s a bitter flavor right at the tip of the tongue and right at the back on the swallow, but otherwise, the hops are flavorful rather than strongly bitter. It’s a really sweet hop profile compared to a lot of other beers of this style, and, as I said before, a much cleaner taste than most beers of this style. Upshot: Founders is awesome. As always.
I really wish I had one of these in front of me right now.
