Deschutes Brewery introduced the latest addition to its “Fresh” family of beers in September, Royal Fresh Imperial IPA, joining the year-round lineup alongside best-selling Fresh Squeezed IPA, Fresh Haze IPA, and Lil’ Squeezy Juice Ale (and now, apparently, Squeezy Rider West Coast IPA). It’s a behemoth at 9% ABV and 70 IBUs, but frankly it’s nice to see an imperial join the core lineup just to shake things up.

Here’s a bit about Royal Fresh from the original press release:

“Royal Fresh has all the big, juicy hop character of a traditional Imperial, but we were less concerned about hitting a 90-100 IBU mark, making it a very drinkable Imperial,” said Director of New Product Development for the brewery, Veronica Vega. “Using 5 pounds of hops per barrel, Royal Fresh includes 7 different hop varietals (Mosaic, Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo, Citra, Cashmere and El Dorado) with hop additions at 6 different stages of the brewing process.”

The brewery had sent me bottles to sample, and I had high hopes for the beer since the original Fresh Squeezed is an excellent IPA. (Spoiler: I wasn’t disappointed.)

Appearance: Honey gold in color with a light haze, and a creamy whipped head that’s off-white.

Smell: Big tropical fruit punch in the nose, with enough hops to be candy-like. Touch of sweatiness and a dank note, and it goes into a floral, fresh fruit blossom aroma. Some sweet alcohol booziness.

Taste: Big malt, big hops, lightly boozy in a sweet direction. Hops have a moderate bitterness and a sweetly overripe stone fruit flavor, cloyingly “hot” in a combination of hop burn and alcohol. At the same time, it doesn’t drink like a 9% beer—the “hop candy” and bready malt notes keep it dangerously sippable.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body with a sweet, boozy finish.

Overall: Drinks big yet easy. Might even be more of a triple IPA (impression-wise) but I like it. It’s nice to have a solid, decently bitter-and-boozy strong IPA that doesn’t descend into hazy flavors and textures for a change.