Amplus Acerba
First, this beer is 11.3%, not the 8.80% currently listed. Had it twice now, first time last July shortly after Hess opened, and most recently 4/02/11, this review from those notes, but my intial impressions remainded. A: The beer pours a Hazy light amber brown, with a golden hue, and a off-white head that rose about two inches, and slowly faded, leaving great lacing. S: Strong hop profile, with an equally strong sweet malty backbone. Lots of aroma's of grapefruit, citrus, pine, and malty caramel. T: I just got punched. Grapefruit, pine, sweet caramel, and littly earth in the middle. The alcohol comes through a bit too, so this is a good sipping beer. M: Medium to full bodied, medium to full carbonation, good bitterness, but also slightly sweet and oily. O: Excellent beer, well done. Hess wants this beer in it's own category, What they call a San Diego Pale Ale. To me, it's a Tripel IPA. Imperial is pretty close I suppose, but it's pretty unique. Picked up a Growler of this for a fellow BA (Havokprod) as he has been wanting this again since last summer, and wanted this, and only this in that growler (that he bought last year, and only used it that one time for this beer, since he is not local)