REVIEW: 21st Amendment Hop Crisis

Try as I might I can never go too long without a big imperial IPA. Today's is very big. Hop Crisis clocks in at 9.7% ABV and 94 IBUs and is aged on oak spirals. Seems we might be in for a beer similar to that Dogfish Head Burton Baton I had a few weeks ago. Both big imperial IPAs, both oak aged. Hopefully this one's just as tasty. To the beer!

Hop Crisis pours a slightly hazy burnished brassy gold. Very vibrant. It's topped by two fingers of airy bubbly, yet resilient head that leaves some great lacing.

The aromas on this beer are very robust. Oily resinous hop character is contrasted against hints at toffee maltiness. Lots of vanilla notes as well. It also has a creamy, boozy quality. Very interesting. Almost barleywine-ish in it's richness and complexity.

That toffee like character I detected on the nose comes back in a big way on the flavor. Big sweet notes of toffee with some caramel and candied sugar thrown in for good measure. It's also very boozy. That 9.7% ABV isn't hidden well at all. It also manifests in a lot of alcohol warming on the finish. Hop Crisis is very full bodied. Very big and rich. The oak spirals impart a ton of big robust vanilla and caramel notes. A lot of the other oak aged beers I've had have either been aged in oak barrels or on oak chips. And those seem to impart more subtle flavors. The oak flavors here are anything but subtle. There are some almost bourbon-like flavors going on here. Goodness, I've gotten this far in this post and I haven't even mentioned the hop flavors at all. But to be honest, they kind of take the back burner here. Resinous, slightly floral, as well as interesting light fruity flavors of peach, pear and a bit of grapefruit. The bitterness comes across more as a bracing bite than a lingering bitterness. I'm not sure if that makes a ton of sense but it's the impression that I got.

This beer is one of the wilder imperial IPAs I've had in some time. The combination of the huge oak flavors, full body, toffee sweetness and hop character make for a very interesting beer. It does have some barleywine qualities as well. Well worth checking out.

HD