Captain's Reserve Imperial India Pale Ale

Sitting in a hip New York City beer bar with hundreds of brews to choose from, I selected a bottle of Captain's Reserve Imperial India Pale Ale, and I'm glad that I did. Born of the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company, out of Elmsford, New York. Captain's Reserve arrived in a spacious bottle bearing a pretty ugly label. The beer inside poured a murky golden orange, topped with a stunning cloud of almost white head.

This stuff has citrus nose to spare--it's like jamming your face in a hempy grapefruit! There is ample flavour with generous hop bombast. It's far on the grapefruit side of things, but with some boozy sweetness as well. The finish is bitter and takes a satisfying hop bite out of you throat on the way down. According to the beer list at the bar, Captain's Reserve contains a pretty mellow 8% alcohol.

This is a pretty substantial Imperial I.P.A.  It's flavourful and tastes well made. There is lower alcohol content than I usually look for in an Imperial, but it definitely satisfies.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.