Samuel Adams Double Agent IPL

Brewing innovation is about asking "what if?". What if we gave an IPA a new identity and used some of our favorite West Coast hops, with their grapefruit, piney, & tropical fruit character, in a lager? The result is this boldly hoppy & and flavorful brew with the crisp smoothness of a lager. Cheers!

MALT VARIETIES
Samuel Adams two-row pale malt blend and Munich malt

HOP VARIETIES
Zeus, Simcoe, Citra, Ahtanum, Cascade, Centennial, and Nelson Sauvin hops

3.5

562 reviews

Boston, United States

Community reviews

3.5 Bottle from Brewhouse Brisbane 040315. Thin bodied but seems full in the mouth. Definite lager characteristics but also some ale qualities as well, confusing the senses.

3.0 12oz bottle. Poured a golden color with a larger sized head. Stale hops, some lighter fruitiness, and lighter citrus.

3.4 Poured into a pils glass. 4.5 A: Clear medium orange color. Two and a half fingers of pillowy off-white head. Retention is pretty good and a tons of lacing is left. 4.0 S: After having some SA fruit drinks, I’m relieved to smell an actual beer again. Hops run wild in this. Huge floral hoppiness with notes of grapefruit, pine, and herbalness. The lager is clean with a mild neutral maltiness. 3.5 T: The taste is missing big flavors and a central focus, but it’s still quite tasty. It’s a "mellow" IPL. Mild bitterness, moderate neutral maltiness, clean. Hops are floral foremost with a touch of herbalness and grapefruit. Faint caramel. 3.75 M: Medium body. Good moderate carbonation. Reasonable creamy and super smooth. 3.75 D: Pretty good beer with no faults. DavoleBomb, May 30, 2013

4.2 A perfect session beer. Easy to drink and crisp like a lager with plenty of tropical and citrus from the hops to give it plenty of taste. Light bitterness, an easy dryness to balance it out. Samuel Adams know their lagers.

3.5 Pours clear orange with a puffy beige head, excellent retention, very good lacing. Aromas of grapefruit, tropical fruit, pine, caramel, and biscuit. Light body, velvety, dry. Mildly sweet, slight citrus, medium bitter tropical fruit and pine resin finish. Enjoyably bitter, complex, and quaffable.

4.5 Fantastic. Better than Sam Adams Hoplogy 48 Latitude. Better hop flavor, better roasted after-taste. On par with Smoky Mtn Brewery Pale.

4.1 Pleasant floral and malt aroma, clear Amber appearance with a white head with poor retention.

3.3 This beer is a little more mellow than some of the accompanying India Pale - X. Hops at the nose, a little bit of light fruit. Finish is sweet.

3.2 Unjustly rated as served straight from the bottle from Landmark Americana just off Rowan University Campus. Not a bad beer but limited in a few categories. Worthy of a second try.

3.2 355mL bottle BB Jan-15 Clear golden body, holds small white head. Restrained hop aroma; pine, melon, stonefruits, tropical fruits, a touch of light toast malt. Medium body, dry, clean, moderate carbonation, smooth overall. Light toasted cereal malts lay the backbone for pleasant hop notes of grass, pine, citrus & tropical fruits. Reasonably low carbonation, lingers for a bit. Very drinkable, nicely flavoured and balanced.

3.8 12 oz. bottle from Cash Wise in Watford. Appearance: finger slightly offwhite head, golden color, clear, good lacing, Aroma: light caramel, light raisin fruitiness, floral hops, as beer warms, orange citrusy hops come through. Palate: medium body, average carbonation, sticky texure, bitter dry finish. Taste: sweet raisins and caramel, with a decaying sweetness into a nice citrus and floral bitterness. Transition is subtle and very smooth. As beer warms, heavy orange sweet to citrus bitter takes over the finish. Overall, surprisingly a very good beer! The balance is great, the aroma and tastes are great.

3.5 Poured into a tulip glass, golden, clear, minimal head, white foam, lightly bitter, medium body, soft carbonation, long finish, based on the aroma I was expecting more of an IPA taste, but it was incredibly smooth. I was very surprised, good beer.

3.4 12 oz bottle. BB Jan/2015. (Martin's) Winchester, VA. Clear amber colour with a small white head. The aroma is full of hops... candy, citrus, pine, fruits and pine hops... what else is needed? Nothing. Absolutely great aroma. Delicious. Hard to believe it's a mass produced lager... The flavour is a bit more rounded. Candy and fruity hops, lots of sweetness and malt in the flavour. Too sweet. Otherwise I'm impressed.

4.2 Bottle as part of hopped up IPA 6 pack. Have had this before and don’t really recall it. Wonderful sweet fruity hop aroma, hazy dark gold body with a dreamy tiny bubble white head. Starts out a little on the ordinary side with hints of wet cardboard. But settles in as a really nice go to quality IPA. Not extraordinary but really solid.

2.9 Where and how: bottle 355 ml Aromafruity citrus feel. Plenty of caramel sweetness, I would say tad too much. Late raw bitterness behind. This could be set up in better way. Appearance : Top: large frothy white top, sparse lace. Presentable. Base: fine haze on amber plain. Palate : medium full bodied, finer carbonation. Taste: Front noted by caramel sweet malts wrapped by citrus bitters. A bit chaotic in set up. Other notes Sam Adams can do better.

2.9 Pours clear toasty orange gold with a decent white head that fades to a wet-laced rim and coating. Aroma is apricot and mild citrus with corn. Taste is toasty malt bedded with a short bitter grapefruit hoppy tang. Quite crisp on the palate as promised. Interesting but a bit shallow.

3.3 12 oz bottle from the local Jewel. Starts of tasting like an IPA and ends like a Blue Moon

3.4 Bottle at home. Pours Amber yellow with three fingers of head. Aroma is citrus mainly grapefruit and some pine. Medium bodied. Very nice beer.

3.2 Bottle - Pours a clear golden/amber with a creamy white head. Nice aromas of orange,grapefruit, and pine. Aromas continue with a light bitterness and a malt backbone.A solid IPL.

4.5 Aroma: Medium-high hops, fruity. citrus, tropical fruit, Appearance: Body: hazy dark gold. Head: Medium fizzy white. Good retention. Flavour: Medium-high hops flavour, piney, resiny, grassy. Medium bitterness. Medium-light sweetness. Dry finish with lingering bitterness and resin. Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation, creamy. Overall: Highly enjoyable. A complete surprise on flavour; powerful and bitter, very good. 330 ml bottle, poured. Thanks Esme! 23. Specialty Beer 14C. Imperial IPA 10A. American Pale Ale

3.4 "I may have waited a little too long on this, but it IS before the date and still pleasantly hoppy and floral. Tropical fruits, citrus and a hint of pine. Light in body, so as not to be cloying. Solid brew. Best new one I’ve had from them in a while."

2.7 Not bad but not quite as easy drinking or good as ordinal session ipas. Pours hazy amber without much head or lacing. Light sour and bitter finish. Bottle from Chevy chase.

3.3 THOUGHTS: Delightful and interesting. A truly innovative beer. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it was great to see a little innovation in style. TECHNICAL: Drank 3/11/2013. Bottle. Poured a clear, very light amber with a small to average, off-white head that mostly diminished and left excellent lacing. The aroma contained light pale malt and light-colored bread; and heavy resin hops; moderate pine and citrus hops; light passion fruit hops; and slight melon. The initial flavor was slightly sweet and lightly bitter; while the finish was lightly sweet and moderately bitter with an average duration. There was pale malt, cracker, white bread, resinous hops, tropical hops, pine hops, citrus hos, passion fruit and slight melon hops. The light to medium body was slightly water with very fizzy carbonation and a metallic finish.

3.6 I had this at Global Brew. Pours gold with a white head. Taste citrus, pine, sweet. I thought this was good. I would drink this again.

3.4 12 oz bottle poured into a pilsner glass. The initial aroma has a berry muffin quality to it, but then turns to bright, sweet citrus, floral, and candy, with touches of grass and bubblegum underneath. Near the middle to end of the drink a honey aroma starts to creep in with a notable herbal / pine character. It pours a clear honey-gold / orange-yellow color with a rocky, creamy yellow-ish frothy head. The head is uneven, unstable, and contains various bubble sizes. It retains quite a bit of puffy head throughout the drink and leaves behind quite a bit of frothy lace. The taste is a medium/medium-light bitter with a medium sweetness. The creamy, syrupy texture has an abundant soft, creamy carbonation to match. The medium body contains juicy, stone fruits with citrus and bread and it finishes with pine and burnt toast. It?s pretty clean and refreshing with a light, but noticeable aftertaste that turns from pine and burnt toast to a bubblegum-like, sticky quality.

4.1 Transfer from BA review on 2-16-13- Poured from bottle into a pint glass Appearance- Pours a nice copper-amber color with a one finger off white head. The head is rather thick, slowly fading over time to give a nice level of lacing on the sides of the glass. Smell- The aroma s quite hoppy in nature. It consists largely of a citrus and some pine hop. There is a sweet aroma mixed with these hop aromas as well. Some tropical fruit notes of mango and tangerine as well as a very light caramel smell. Taste – The taste begins with a bready flavor mixed with a light pine and some sweeter tangerine, melon, and mango. As the flavor advances the pine hp flavors lessen in nature while a citrus hop flavor begins dominating the hop taste. While the grapefruit hop gets stronger, the sweeter flavors dwindle some more. In the end a lightly sweetened and actually rather hoppy malt flavor are left to linger on the tongue. Mouthfeel- The body of the beer is on the slightly thicker side with a carbonation level that is rather average. Both are quite nice for hop and bready flavors as well as the sweet flavors being accentuated well as well by the creamy body. Overall- A very nice drinking and hoppy brew. Quite tasty and delicious.

3.5 It’s like an IPA but not. It tastes like a Boston Lager with west coast hops. It’s really drinkable and very refreshing. Very citrus forward but with a clean lager finish. I haven’t really been interested in IPL’s before but saw this and figured I’d give it a try. Not bad at all!

3.3 Pleasant hoppy bitterness with some grapefruit that is leaning on too light and clean a base to come to its right. Relatively low abv and easy drinking.

3.3 Clear pale amber with white lacing head. Aroma of hops and bread. Flavor is more like IPA, but a little smoother. Okay.

3.4 Decent beer. Golden/orange color , mid sized white head. Aroma of grain , tropical fruits and pine. Sweet malty taste with hoppy , bitter finish.