Beer Review: Sly Fox Odyssey Imperial IPA

Another treat from PA.

I bought a bottle of Sly Fox Brewing Company's Odyssey Imperial IPA a few weeks back with I was up in the Philly area. Remember that epic beer weekend? Here's the run down if you missed it. At about $6 for a 22 oz bottle the price was right. I enjoy the style and we don't get this back home. Here we go.

Poured in to a Dogfish Head signature glass. Appears hazy light copper with a thin and firm fine bubbled white head, small dotted lacing and minimal carbonation streams. The head thins out and dissipates a bit, but stays through the end of the tasting. Odyssey smells of spicy hops, almost floral and perfumy. There is some malt sweetness present in the nose as well.

Upon the first sips I'm greeted with huge spicy and bitter hop flavors. Tastes kind of like what I imagine candied grapefruit would taste like. The malt sweet and richness is less present in the flavor profile than in the aroma. It finishes with subtle hop bitterness with an aftertaste that doesn't stick around for more than a few seconds.

This tastes and feels like an above average double IPA. It's not a total hop or booze bomb, which is nice. At 8.4% ABV I was expecting this to taste a tad on the boozy side. But Sly Fox did a decent job of balancing out the flavors in this beer, though it leans a bit more towards the hoppy side as expected. I'd get this again in a few years, but it's nothing I'd go crazy to find.