Our friends Paul and Sandi came over this past Saturday and brought a growler of Deschutes Brewery‘s pub-only King Screamer IPA. According to the Brewery’s What’s on Tap page, this is a 68 IBU, 6.7% ABV brew with this whimsical description:

The Royal Hop Commission of Deschutes Brewery hereby decrees your taste buds satisfied in all three realms of the Queen Regency (Bitterness, Flavor & Aroma). Don’t fear, this beer is a benevolent dictator.

It was quite good and I jotted down some notes while drinking through the growler:

Copper-colored with fluffy white head. Big juicy hop aromas wafting off of it—Citras? Nice toasty biscuit flavors from the malts—fairly luscious and nutty. Hops really pop with this beer, floral and bitter and bright. Really quite nice and flavorful and very drinkable.

There were of course a (ahem) few other beers consumed as well; two other notable ones were Lauren’s Pale Ale from Seven Brides Brewing (out of Silverton, Oregon) and Hopsickle Imperial Ale from Moylan’s Brewing (“Triple Hoppy”).

Seven Brides is fairly new and their beers have only just recently appeared in Central Oregon (I’ve only seen them at The Brew Shop so far). Their Pale Ale is 5.7% ABV and (according to the label) their “interpretation of the classic British pale ale”; frankly, it reminded me more of a Belgian-style pale ale than British, with some phenols or candy yeast flavors or something that made me think “Belgian.” Not a bad beer, but ultimately reminds me more of a homebrew than a commercially-brewed beer. (That probably sounds harsher than I intended; I wouldn’t mind drinking another bottle just to be sure, and I’m anxious to try their other offerings.)

The Hopsickle Imperial Ale, at 9.2% ABV and “Triple Hoppy,” is, well, an Imperial IPA. In other words, big and sticky and super-hoppy and full-bodied and did I say sticky? It’s pretty good, as Imperial IPAs go, and indeed will appeal hugely to the segment of the beer drinking population for whom stronger, super-hoppy Imperial IPAs are the cat’s meow. (It scores an A- on BeerAdvocate, to underscore my point.) This batch was brewed with Tomahawk, Chinook, and Anthanum hops (a bit different than what their website says). It’s a good nightcap beer, but for a drinkable IPA with loads of balance I have to go back to the King Screamer from Deschutes. That was a tasty beer.