Samuel Adams Rebel Rouser Double IPA

Sam Adams' Rebel Rouser 2X IPA
Sam Adams’ Rebel Rouser 2X IPA

There’s an eye-opener. 85 IBU’s, 8.4% alk, and the outside of the can has all kinds of other descriptors like “West Coast Style” and “unapologetically hoppy.” Speaking of the can, this is the fourth Sam Adams “Rebel” IPA i’ve tried, and it should get mentioned that all the cans themselves are top-of-the-line hunks of aluminum. Much more solid and sturdy than most cans these days, and it sounds like a small matter, and it is really, but it’s just a subtle indication that this is a high-class beer operation.

But the horror of that Grapefruit IPA still clouds my opinion of Sam Adams as a whole, and it will for years to come. Apologize, Sam, or i can’t buy any of your stuff anymore. I still shudder when no one’s watching.

Now on to this Double IPA… High alcohol, absurdly hoppy, like giving your mouth a hop bath even though it insisted it was clean already. There’s no slinking around the corners with this one, either you face the hops head-on or they’ll slap your face like you just pinched their sister. Not for dilletantes, this one.

Pine and orange, according to the label, but also pine-bark and rhododendron roots, green berries and scored kafir leaves, this is so hoppy that it nudges right up against the boundary into salty. Drinking this, even your burps come out like Pine-Sol. Drink too much, and i’m sure that you won’t have to buy Lysol… your upchuck will surely leave the toidy sparkling clean.

The beer-body side of the equation is very nice, someone at SA has learned a thing or three about which malts you want if you’re going for the halo of Hoppier Than Thou. Nearly a German body to it, but instead of the sour they’ve brought in the tart. It’s a pretty good beer, and would have an 8.1, but there is the now-automatic deduction for all Sam Adams beers, until they apologize publicly for making that grapefruit IPA. So this one gets a 7.1.

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