Name: Biard Brewing’s Sagura Bay Imperial IPA
Origin: Japan
Style: Imperial IPA (7.5%)
Appearance: A cloudy, peach coloured IPA, it pours with a small, fizzy head that shrinks away to a filmy top.
Taste Just from the aromas I can tell this is a highly hopped ale. Intense smells of floral hops dominate the aroma profile. The flavour is not far from its aroma; It starts with a brief sweet, toffee and orange flavour which is quickly overpowered by the hops of this beer. The sweetness does not disappear, but becomes something of a background flavour when the stronger hop flavours come forward. Strong flavours of floral and grapefruit-like citrus hops. It finishes with a bitter, herbal aftertaste that lingers for a long, long time.
Mouth Feel: A highly carbonated, yet easy drinking IPA. It has a creamy mouth feel, but ends up being very filling. It has a medium body.
Final Thoughts (4.0 out of 5): This is an excellent Imperial IPA. It blasts you in the face with a hop punch, but kisses you and tells you its sorry with its sweet base. This is not for the uninitiated craft beer drinker, especially those who cannot handle heavily hopped beers.
Fun fact: Sugura Bay is a bay that allows some amazing photos of Mt. Fuji (this is not my photo!)