Beer – #133 – Liberty – C!tra

Liberty C!tra, Brewed by Liberty Brewing in the style of a  Imperial/Double IPA in New Plymouth, New Zealand

500ml of a 9% ABV beer (thats about 3.6 standard drinks) in a simple bottle.

What is in a name? Under conventional language guidelines you would expect to find any number of consonants, and to a lesser extent, you will find the odd noun. But if your have a look at the name of this beer, you will find that it has an exclamation mark right in the middle of it. What’s that all about? Doesn’t that just seem a little unusual? It’s definitely not a typo – and if you’re reading this, then I guess it’s done it’s Job. The next step is to take this bottle home. Go on. You won’t regret it.

at 9% ABV you might regret it, is what I’m thinking. This is beer that has nothing but good reviews though, so I’m not expecting any regrets, except if its only having one bottle.

Double IPA, so Hoppy, bitter (99IBU bitter) and a full noise nose is what I’m expecting. A head on the pour would be a bonus.

Before I pour there is an abundance of hop aroma, this is something you should bottle, it’s pretty o for owesum. It’s hoppy but sweet. Its chestnut brown and pours with a nice settled head. MrsPdubyah agrees with me , a first, that this has an aroma to die for. Grapefruit,  citrus, a little grass. I may have gone on a little bit about the aroma, it’s worth it!

There’s a banging amount of hop bitter on the taste too, not lip puckering whince but a fair goodly amount of ‘gosh, how fine and subtle that is’, and how fabulous the length of the taste, I’m sitting here grinning.

There a lovely sweetness to offset the bitter in this, the whole experience is something to savour and if you’re drinking to enjoy you’re unfolding a many layered thing.

After a bunch of average this stands shoulders above many many beers, and leaves you wondering what  the others might be up to, or what they missed on their journey.

As it sits the grassiness begins to take hold of the taste, the length remains the smile still lingers. They’ve really crammed the hops into this, and managed at the same time to keep them in check. I can see why this is well liked.

The pdubyah-o-meter likes this too. It’s a solid 9 things on the scale of things. Not a 10, there just aren’t enough things to keep you looking for the next thing, but as a thing on and of itself this is the thing!

One of those beers where if you like an IPA, then this would really ring you bell, and if you brought this and didn’t like it I’d offer you the money back. Quite spectacular, quaffable and a beer that would get you wobbly in short order should you forget that this i a big hitter 9% abv beer. Would easily stand up to some strong taste foods, would easily make grown men start waxing lyrical about the 80’s, 90’s, and confess many things.

Hats off to you Liberty, I’m a bit in love.

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