For the month of December, Boston’s Harpoon Brewery released a doubled-up version of its flagship Harpoon IPA, in what it dubs its “Big & Limited Edition” (series? one-off?): Imperial Harpoon IPA. I’d posted about the release and Harpoon sent me a can to sample recently, so I figured since we’re still only a week out from December I’d get a review posted.

The beer is 9% alcohol by volume with 60 IBUs; the website description says:

We’d never change Harpoon IPA— it’s New England’s Original IPA after all— but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it.

Introducing Imperial Harpoon IPA: Big & Limited Edition. We took our iconic IPA recipe and made some tweaks— jacking up the ABV up to a whopping 9.0% and doubling down on dry hops with two pounds per barrel. It’s classic and familiar but brings our flagship into a whole new world of hoppiness. Only available for a limited time!

The hop bill is simple enough: Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial. Classic!

Appearance: Deep copper color, unfiltered, rocky off-white head.

Smell: Pine and candied citrus with some sweet, perfumey alcohol notes, and a big earthy streak of hop resin. Slightly raisin-y malt character. It’s got a pretty classic DIPA aroma profile without feeling “dated,” if that makes sense.

Taste: Solid bitterness that’s herbal with some resinous sap and a touch of black tea. Some citrus fruitiness (blood orange) with spicy peel and pith (pink grapefruit). Alcohol spiciness as well, not hot but present. Clean malt with a bit of caramel and honey. Herbal bitterness like yarrow?

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body, clean but with a long lingering bitterness into the finish.

Overall: It’s a nice beer, and big, and doesn’t shy away from the hops without going out of balance.