Black Diamond Rampage Imperial IPA

We didn’t want this to be Jagged Edge on steroids. Thus rather than using the same hop combination, we chose more fruit forward hops to balance out the alcohol in the beer. The medium crystal malt adds a very subtle color and sweetness. Nugget and Millenium hops are used to bitter. Citra is a new variety to the market that has some similar properties to Simcoe but a more pleasant fruitiness; pineapple/mango aromas mixed in with pine and cat’s pee. Centennial brings candied orange and Amarillo adds big grapefruit. The liquid in the fermenter is dry-hopped three times- each dry hop equal in weight to the dry hop of Jagged Edge. This multi-stage dry hopping is meant to layer the different hop aromas. The beer is fermented cool to suppress fusel alcohol development, and dextrose is added to allow it to attenuate out highly, leaving very little residual sugar. The idea was to avoid that syrupy "gumsmacker" effect that’s sometimes found in Imperial IPAs. Other than barrel aged beers, this is by far our most labor intensive and expensive beer to make. Rampage fans are legion and we believe they deserve nothing less than the very best we can give them.