Name: Lagunitas: Imperial Red
Brewed In/Type: Peteluma, CA / Ale
Bought at/Price: Sandhu Wine and Liquor (San Ramon, CA) / $2.99
Dennis: Another of the lagunitas family I brought back with me from CA, this one shares a very similar (i.e. identical) hop backbone with it's Maximus brother. But manages to balance the malts and hops out a little better. Where Maximus was all extreme hops up in your face, this is more like diet extreme hops all up in yo face. Basically it's just much better done and probably if these two combined into one balanced beer you'd have this. Oh yeah, and 7.7% don't hurt....but I would have liked to see the hops toned and mellowed even more.
Jen: Okay, so I really don't think that Lagunitas is that great of a brewery, now having two of their beers. This one, however, is better than the previous one. This one brings the hoppy bitterness to a well rounded ending with a nice backbone of caramel malts. You get a mouth full of hop taste from the get-go, but you are able to soon forget it after you swallow, because your palette is cleansed with malts. Drinkable, yes, cheap, yes, worth it, yes, will I purposefully purchase it again, probably.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5