Wormtown Hopulence

Wormtown Hopulence (2012)

Brewed and Bottled by Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, MA. USA.

Limited Release.

22 fl. oz. / $7.99 USD / 8.5% ABV

About: "Brewed with an abundance of hops. Once we started hopping this beer stopping was impossible. Emphasizing Amarillo, Horizon, Summit, and Glacier hops with support from 5 other American varieties. Hops were added in every conceivable part of the brewing process. Whole leaf in the mash, hop forwarded (lautered through whole cones), hop backed, first wort hopped, kettle hopped with pellets and extract, and dry hopped in the fermenter and brite tanks. No expense was spared to bring you HOPULENCE!"

Thoughts: Decided on my Jason Voorhees glass considering the guy basically is from "Worm Town". Hehe.

Poured an uber cloudy amber, almost peach colored tone. The slightly yellowed  head was super long lasting and did something that I don't normally see, it left bald spot in the middle of the top once it started to fade out. Ususally there's just a thin sliver left, or puddles or a cresent moon shape, but I don't recall ever seeing the foam cling to the glass and flow away from the middle like this.

This smells very fruity: like, peaches and mango, but mostly lemon zest and though as if my mind is playing tricks on me, a strawberry/banana blend. There's a slight peppery tone throughout, and aside from that it seems pretty soothing.

Taste is very spicy first off, loads of peppery hops flutter around the mouth, and it's mildly sweet. Not really bitter after the swallow, nor absurdly sweet in the mouth, and I wouldn't really say it's bittersweet either. It's a calm, collected mix of gentle sweetness and pepper. Really nice. This has a really smooth taste and has a nice overall composition. It's a little buttery tasting, chalky, and slightly astringent. It's not off or unpleasant at all, but perhpas it could be a little sweeter... which is probably a werid complaint. As I usually hope for more of a hoppy DIPA anyways. Biterness starts to shine through around the end of the bottle and it's not bad. Everything seems to sit together well.

Mouth feel is  a light medium, it's a little bubbly and leaves a shitload of aftertaste that isn't exactly bad tasting, but rather a little astringient.

I'd been looking forward to trying a Wormtown beer. I heard they got a spiced pepper ale which I've yet to find. When I saw this DIPA on the shelf that I hadn't seen two days ago when I was at the liquor store, and the JULY stiker on the back (I drank this the last day of July), I just couldn't help myself.