Thomas Creek Up the Creek Extreme IPA
Up the Creek is mashed at a low temperature to increase the amount of fermentable sugars while reducing residual sweetness. This creates a hoppy behemoth of a beer with its alcohol well hidden. UTC is designed to be dangerously drinkable, so use caution or you’ll find yourself Up the Creek!
3.6
314 reviews
Greenville, United States
Community reviews
Pours amber with a medium khaki head that fades to a nice cap with decent lacing. AROMA: malt, tamarind, caramel, roasty, herbs, citrus, spruce, earthy, leaves, alcohol, herbal hops, spices, peppercorn, slight chocolate, dank fruit and molasses. TASTE: malt, tamarind, caramel, roasty, herbs, citrus, spruce, earthy, leaves, alcohol, herbal hops, spices, peppercorn, slight chocolate, dank fruit, burned brown sugar, slight rubber and molasses. TASTE: malt, tamarind, caramel, roasty, herbs, citrus, spruce, earthy, leaves, alcohol, herbal hops, over ripped pineapple, spices, peppercorn, slight chocolate, dank fruit and molasses. AFTER TASTE: malty, caramel, herbal hops, spices, tamarind and earthy with an oily thick molasses boozy finish.
Backlog...................... Sample @ Malmö Öl & Whisky Festival 20140329.
This is a extreme IPA indeed. Heavy syrup on the nose with molasses and maltiness. Pours dark red/brown with a long lasting tanned head. Palate is heavy sugar and malts with some alcoholic sweetness but remarkably little for the percentage. Lasting taste with some bitterness but viciously easy to drink. If you don’t want to go up the creek - drink responsible.
Pours dark amber clear, persistent tan head, heavy lacing. Nose is all molasses. Very sweet, intense malt, orange flavor. Strong hops are overwhelmed by the sugar and alcohol. Not bad, but not really an imperial IPA experience. I have been up the creek however and fortunately I was not drinking this strong beer but another more moderate one when trying to find my way In a real wilderness.
Well I just ordered this expecting a standard double IPA, but I was pleasantly surprised at this rather exotic and iconoclastic brew! This brew is half dopplebock and half IPA, truly fascinating! Pours a lighter amber off-brown color, slightly reminiscent of a standard IPA copper color but much darker. Aroma of rich burnt caramel and some piney resin, as well as a hint of vanilla. The caramel turns to chocolate malt in the taste, with a citrus orange hoppiness In the background, some other caramel maltiness. Essentially tastes like a chocolate dipped mandarin orange, with a bit of a boozy bite in the finish. Aftertaste of chocolate and grapefruit hops. I could see how others may find this off-putting, but I found it quite enjoyable! Extreme indeed, but memorably and deliciously so!
Draft. Minimal head atop crystal clear garnet-brown body. Aroma is moderately sweet, caramel, some vinous, orange. Taste is moderately sweet, vinous, caramel, some cherry, orange, alcohol warming. Medium-full body, low carbonation. The maltiness and alcohol wholly subsume the hops.
12oz bottle of beer I have access to, but got in a shitty trade on HBT!!! Pours a dark brownish/Amber color with a finger of creamy tan head. Aroma of nasty malty expired IPA and rotted citrus. No bottled on date, but this smells expired and gross. Taste of sweet malty caramel, bitter rotted citrus, tons of booziness, and toffee in the finish. Drain pour!!
Bottle. Dark amber almost brown. Aroma of caramel and plums. Flavor is heavy sweet syrupy malts. Just as you think its going to finish all boozy on you you get some helpful hop bitterness and piney and resinous hops. You can tell this is a big beer but the 12.5 tastes more like 9.0. Stronger than it needs to be. I think by any traditional definition this would be an american strong ale and not hoppy enough to be a double IPA.
Mess of a beer. Dark brown pour with frothy head. Entirely too sugary, bitter, smells of stale barley wine. It’s a big beer, but that’s really the only thing it has going for it.
Whoa baby, this is a hot beer. Pours deep amber with a quick white head and a relatively subdued nose. Despite the 100+ IBU, this is not a hop bomb, though it is certainly not holding back on them and falls into that category. The story here is the rich, slightly sugary malt and the tremendous presence of alcohol. It’s something, though I’m not entirely sure what, though overall I like it.
Old rating. Big malty IPA. Amber brown pour. Big caramel sweetness, some booziness, a little chewy. Pretty much a one trick pony…but a big one.
Bottle shared by Dr Silverworm. Poured clear brown color with an average frothy off-white head that was mostly lasting with good lacing. Moderate toasted sweet malt aroma. Medium body with smooth texture and soft carbonation. Medium to heavy sweet flavor with a medium to heavy sweet finish of moderate duration.This is a soft beer.
Pretty good beer from my growler. Strong, maybe a little too strong. Had two and it snuck up on me.
A really powerful and malty imperial IPA. It tastes great, but i couldn’t drink up the whole bottle by myself
12 oz bottle shared by DrSilverworm. Pours a dark amber, copper color with a thin off white film. The aroma and flavor have sweet caramel malts and not much else, a very light bitterness to the finish, this is closer to an English barley wine than a DIPA.
12oz bottle, shared with local raters. Picked up from Habersham in Savannah on 2/23/15. Didn’t realize this was so big until just now... OK, you deserve to call it "extreme". Mostly clear red/brown color... Darker than expected. Little off-white head. No lace. In the nose... Some dark fruit, caramel, some warmth. Some grapefruit citrus hop in the flavor, but this is more malt forward. Not as uber-sweet as expected... I’ve had sweeter 12+% IPAs. But this is pretty sweet. Bigger sweet taste, moderate-plus bitterness too, and a mild bite on the finish. Bigger body, kind of slick texture. Lighter carbonation. Alright to try 4oz of, but I can easily imagine how quickly a whole bottle to myself would have gotten old quickly. I’m skeptical as to how fresh the bottle is, but no forgiveness can be given since this brewery doesn’t clearly mark dates (as far as I could see)
Bottle to taster (shared by DrSilverworm). Looks like a malt bomb; a semi-transparent dark copperish brown with very light caramel head that steadily dissipates into thin lacing. Smells like a sticky barleywine. Tastes like it smells with a sticky, bitter mouthfeel. Not good. Not good at all.
An abundance of off-white head out of the tap, with a yellow gold liquid underneath. The head leaves plenty of sticky lacing. The generous carbonation also influenced the mouthfeel making feel, I think, lighter than it would otherwise.
This is one boozy beer, and the high ABV is evident but not objectionable in the nose, but too overpowering in the taste. It also lends some burn and harshness to the mouthfeel, in addition to some warming. The beer also may be mis-classified as a DIPA ... it is more like a barleywine and a bit like a Belgian tripel. There is a definite hop contribution, but also a substantial balance from sweet caramel malts. Neither the high IBU (111) nor the high ABV (12.5%) seem quite so high.
O - you want a super high ABV beer? ... usually sacrifices need to be made in mouthfeel and taste. Such is the case here although the negative effects are not as pronounced as a 12.5% reading would often produce.
Good looking unclear amber color with a fine thick tan head. Nice lacing. Toffee, nutty, fruity and hoppy aroma with some alcohol coming up. Full body. Tad sweet and a fine bitterness. Soft to average carbonation. Lots of caramel and toffee. Pleasant round fruitiness. Not to well masked alcohol. Nice evening sipper. More like a hoppy barley wine after a while.
[Bottle from a trade with tony_gorilla]
12 Fl. Oz. Bottle. Nice looking beer; poured clear, dark amber, nice tan head, lots of carbonation and lots of lacing on the glass. Aroma Is mostly malty, but there is also booze, and some hops notes; quite earthy. Taste is consistent; sweetness from malts, quite boozy, and quite hoppy. A sipper, but a very good one, very enjoyable.
bottle @ Habersham Beverage / Savannah GA --- Clear amber brown with a tan head cover, light sprays of lace. Taste is potent dark fruit and malt that explodes its way through the palate to an end that, while strongly bittered, has no chance against alcohol and more malt. Way more here than the bottle implies. Not for the faint of heart, but great for lovers of power malt.
Pours a dark brown with a nice off white head with good lacing. Aroma is of pine, citrus, sweet malts, caramel, woody notes, and some very faint booze. Taste is similar to the aroma with the addition of dark fruits and toffee. Has a medium-full body with a semi creamy mouthfeel and a semi-moderately bitter, long lingering, ever so slightly boozy finish. Overall, a tasty, pretty complex beer that tastes more like a strong ale and hides its extreme abv very well.
APPEARANCE - Dark brown with a long-lasting medium-brown 4-finger head. Tons of lacing.
SMELL/AROMA/SCENT - Piney, sweet, herbaceous.
TASTE - Caramel-candy sweet, piney, nearly Stout flavor. Sweetness serves to mask high ABV.
MOUTHFEEL/PALATE/TEXTURE - You have to sink your upper lip into the super-creamy head. A real smooth feel. Not syrupy. Some carbonation.
OVERALL/DRINKABILITY - This is so dark, it’s almost a Stout. But it’s a very enjoyable drink.
Bottle@Nya Tröls, Malmö - dark amber/brown pour with good off-white head. Sweet malty aroma and taste, caramel and toffee, big grapefruit, with some dark dried fruits, almost more barley wine than IIPA, but damn its good!
Dark amber with a thin white head. Aroma is pine hops. Flavor is fairly mellow pine hops. Well balanced with some sweet malts and a bit of nuttiness.
Wife: 3.4
Pours a cloudy dark brown with a cream colored head. Taste is malty up front followed by an orange citrus well rounded flavor finishing dry with a little residual sweetness.
[Bottle] Tawny brown color with little head. Nose is of sweet malts, alcohol and a heavy grapefruit bitterness. Notes of sticky caramel, toffee, alcohol, fruity flavors, more grapefruit in the taste. Lingering harsh bitterness is reminiscent of varnish. A thick and heavy beer. Tasting notes from 2/2012.
12 oz. bottle thanks to Phatdog1. Tulip shows deep ruby color with light bubbly head. The aroma and flavor is similar to a young barley wine. Dark fruits of figs, raisin and dates. Also very sugary with a big note of pine.
No surprise that this tastes just like the aroma. The texture is oily with a lasting pine resin residue across the tongue. Long lingering notes of pine. The alcohol is well hidden but it provides a light warming after the swallow. Full-bodied with a near syrupy texture. Really sweet and I understand the brewing process of a barely wine and…. This is a barely wine no matter how the brewery labels it. Still for what it is, pretty decent stuff.
12oz bottle in a tulip. Pours deep brown with a beige head. Aroma of caramel and toffee, light floral hops, notes of alcohol, and bread. Flavor the same with lots of malts. Flavor more like a barley wine. Average texture. Not happy with this one.
Bottle. Pours dirty brown with off white/tan head. Nose/taste of caramel malt, brown sugar, toffee, fig fermented grapefruit peel and molasses. Sugary. Boozy. Like grainy caramel prune juice. Full bodied. Not really a IIPA. Not really good, in my opinion.