Pirate Life IIPA
Crafting great beer is all about balance. At one end of the scale, if you’re brewing a delicate Western European lager, you have to ensure that the four ingredients work in harmony. These more delicate styles take incredible skill to brew well as there’s nowhere to hide any miscalculations or mistakes throughout production.
Launching to the almost extreme opposite, the realm of IIPAs, balance, surprisingly, is still a defining factor. Instead of delicacy in balance, it’s now big flavour in balance.
Simplistically, to achieve a big flavourful IIPA you need: Big Malt + Big Hops + Big Fermentation.
It’s a bit of complicated symbiosis between these three requirements and each of these three provide multiple elements. The malt provides the complex spectrum of sugars for fermentation as well as the main structure and body of the beer. The hops contribute bitterness to balance the malt sweetness as well as resinous piney flavours and juicy fruity-citrusy aromas. The fermentation provides us with a big hit of fun juice (ethanol) and the vast array of incredibly important characterful aroma and flavour compounds.
Not sure if that was too far off track, anyway, what you needed to take away from that was: Pirate Life IIPA is a big beer with big delicious fresh flavours that we hope you will enjoy by sticking it in your big mouth. Peace.
Launching to the almost extreme opposite, the realm of IIPAs, balance, surprisingly, is still a defining factor. Instead of delicacy in balance, it’s now big flavour in balance.
Simplistically, to achieve a big flavourful IIPA you need: Big Malt + Big Hops + Big Fermentation.
It’s a bit of complicated symbiosis between these three requirements and each of these three provide multiple elements. The malt provides the complex spectrum of sugars for fermentation as well as the main structure and body of the beer. The hops contribute bitterness to balance the malt sweetness as well as resinous piney flavours and juicy fruity-citrusy aromas. The fermentation provides us with a big hit of fun juice (ethanol) and the vast array of incredibly important characterful aroma and flavour compounds.
Not sure if that was too far off track, anyway, what you needed to take away from that was: Pirate Life IIPA is a big beer with big delicious fresh flavours that we hope you will enjoy by sticking it in your big mouth. Peace.
3.8
172 reviews
Adelaide, Australia
Community reviews
Can from the brewery. Pours clear bright golden amber with a bubbly off white head. Tastes like grapefruit hops, caramel malt, pine, faimt booze, and toffee. Light/medium body and carbonation. Smells like caramel and toffee malt, pine, and grapefruit hops.
Pours from the can a hazy golden amber with a thin frothy head. Strong tropical fruit and sweet cereal aromas. Grapefruit, pine resin, caramel malt and mild bitterness. Warming alcohol is ever present. More enjoyable on tap.
Can. Pours gold with thin white head. Floral and citrus aroma. Strong bitter hoppy flavour notes but balanced by sweet fruit
Fruity, hoppy, doesn’t feel as hot as it should. Super easy to drink, enjoyable!
500 ml can, from Vinmonopolet, Nettbutikken. ABV is 8.8%. Hazy orange colour, moderate white head. Distinct aroma of pine and spruce, also citrus fruits incl. oranges. Sweet flavour with loads of resinous and grapefruity hops throughout. Bitter finish.
Restrained tropical aroma in a hazy golden pour. Hop forward balance with a full fruity body and sustained bitter finish. Just a hint of boozy heat provides warning that this is a dangerously delicious brew.
Taster at GABS 2018. Pours a copper orange with a white head. Aroma: orange peel, pine, caramel malt notes. Taste: orange peel, pine, caramel malt, mild tropical flavours. Medium bodied. Moderate bitterness with a mild boozy finish. Well balanced and quite tasty. Will definitely try again.
Bread aromas, but musty aka socks. Goes down very easy for its ABV. Malty, creamy, bit of orange in their. Bit of a rye bread after taste. Very enjoyable.
Can 500ml. @ [ chriso & Boudicca's pre- GBBF Shindig 2017 ] - Chris and Ruth's House, London.
[ As Pirate Life IIPA ].
Clear medium orange yellow colour with a average, frothy, good lacing, mostly lasting, off-white to white head. Aroma is moderate malty, sweet malt, light caramel, moderate to heavy hoppy, citrus, grapefruit, fruity hops, sweet hops. Flavor is moderate to heavy sweet and bitter with a long duration, sweet malt, sweet fruit, dried fruit, hoppy, medium dry. Body is medium, texture is oily to watery, carbonation is soft. [20170806]
8-3-7-3-15
Big full hop aroma and packed full of punch. Damn fine example.
This is a big imperial IPA. 500 ml can, poured into a tulip glass. Appearance is hazy, due to suspended particles, but brew is actually a clear deep golden hue, topped with a two fingered head of white froth. Aroma is very hoppy, completely dominated by grapefruit and citrus fruits. Taste is sharp, intense and lingering religious bitter. Body and mouthfeel is surprisingly full, even after the carbonation fizz has gone.
Wow. More hops than you can handle at first, but the complex flavours kick in. You must sip and savour! Aftertaste is very satisfying. The highest IBU beer I have had. Yet, not overpowering. Each 500ml can is 3.5 std drinks (8.8 ABV) so treat with caution. Definitely NOT a session IPA!!
Clear bronze colored pour with a single finger head. Lace present. Aroma of burnt orange, light aroma. Taste has some burnt orange, candy, sugary and sweet finish. Lingering bitterness at the end. Medium bodied.
A full on proper IPA (Or IIPA or summat). I had this after a couple of NEIPA type beers and it went all old school on me. Lipsmacking resin like hops, my teeth nearly got stuck together. Bitter and round bodied, lovely malts here. There's fruit but there's also a more adult pine forrest going on here, like the great north western rainforests meeting a sweet tropical wind, or something. Yes, it inspired me, a lovely beer, hurray!
On Tap at The Gilbert Hotel Adelaide. Big fresh fruit driven hop aroma, lots of character here but very similar to the Haze IPA. Well bittered but balanced.
Can from Hop and Barley, Lincoln. Holdencolour with a white head. Atoma orange bitter pith. Taste bitter Hop and grainy malt. Course body.
What a life! This is a pretty decent DIPA (i am one of those ppl who struggles to give a shit about the difference between DIPA and IIPA lol) that has a fairly strong malty backbone, which is a bit different, especially after a bunch of Lervig & Cloudwater stuff that is just fruit fruit fruit and hop explosions (beautiful none the less). The malts don’t mess around here. They really do counteract that lingering, lip-smacking bitterness that comes afterwards. I really enjoyed this. Thanks to Pop’n’Hops, Cardiff for stocking all these awesome beers.
500ml can. Pours bright orange with a little haze. Caramel, grapefruit, lime, floral, strong bitterness, plenty sweet caramel. Nice.
Good ipa strong flavour. Just like pirate life blue can. Can’t fit into a normal glass in one pour
Tap @ 2nd Draft Hong Kong. Bright orange, reasonable head. Big resin hops aroma. Bitter sweet boiled sweet and rye flavour. Very smooth and well balanced.
Nice head, nice colour, nice malt flavours with a load of hop. Usual grapefruit, citrus and pine, but that sweet malt just balances it out beautifully. Plenty bitter on the finish!
Sample courtesy of Namtons.
Thick creamy white head. Hazy amber pour. Lovely bitterness. Delicious.
50 cl can from wishbeer bangkok. pours hazy Orange with big head. hoppy aroma with citrus and pine.
Narancsszín, kicsi fehér hab. Narancshéjas, grapefruitos illat. Grapefruitos, kekszes, gyümölcsös ízvilág. Nagyon jó dipa.
My personal favorite Australian IIPA, everything balances perfectly and the alcohol is wonderfully hidden if it remains of this quality after selling to CUB remains to be seen unfortunately I have my doubts
Good looking hazy orangy golt beer with a big whippy white head and sound lacing. Vibrant almost spirity orangy aroma. Biscuity yet gingery to taste big but supple too and well balanced.
Bit of Ozzie genius here
Can from Park Fever, Hither Green. Amber pour with a white head. Pineapple, apricot, toffee, vanilla and banana aroma. Flavours of caramel, vanilla, citrus, tangerine. Bitter citrus linger in the finish. Tasty stuff.
Commercial description bangs on about the need for balance even with high strength beers but they are absolutely on the money here. Very good harmony, not perfect, but very good for the style and strength. A quick review of my notes on the genre shows how intolerant I am to disjointed beers, Some funky aniseed here but matches well to some early malt sweetness. Despite the 120 IBU I didn't find this particularly hoppy.
Can 500ml. Delicate hazy, amber colour. White-yellowish, medium head. Aroma is malty with toast note and a lot of hops with sweet tropical fruits notes, really nice, good balanced. Hoppy in taste with high, long bitterness with resin, citrus, tropical fruits notes and small booze at the end which burns delicate in the throat but does not disturb, generally it is aggresive, I mean very good. Beer is medium body, delicate oily, malty, smooth and light, drinkable at the same time. There is great balance between hops and malt. Really good IIPA.
500 ml can. Bought this on a fancy liquor store in Sydney. Amber color with large white head. very hoppy smell of course, some vainilla, pepper, not super strong, but good. Good ipa taste, not as strong in acohol as i expected, but too cameralized, too sweet. It's all over the place, need a little more elegance. Dont get me wrong, it's a good beer, but expected more.