Weyerbacher Eleven
Eleven is made with a single variety of hops, Phoenix, from the UK. Phoenix was developed at Wye College to be a high alpha acid (bitterness) hops with a British flavor profile. Phoenix is also low in cohumulone and high in aromatic oils, so you can throw a ton of ’em in and the beer will stay smooth and aromatic. This beer has 109 IBUs in it!
The taste profile is incredibly balanced and dangerously drinkable for an 11.7% brew. But don’t look for that grapefruity-piny taste you get from US hops (not that there’s anything wrong with that), these buds are fruity and earthy with an almost berry-like aroma, to give this beer a unique taste among big IPAs. Bitterness we got! And malt to back it up, with the result being a very intriguing beer you’ll just want to sip all night thanks to Phoenix hops. Cheers!
The taste profile is incredibly balanced and dangerously drinkable for an 11.7% brew. But don’t look for that grapefruity-piny taste you get from US hops (not that there’s anything wrong with that), these buds are fruity and earthy with an almost berry-like aroma, to give this beer a unique taste among big IPAs. Bitterness we got! And malt to back it up, with the result being a very intriguing beer you’ll just want to sip all night thanks to Phoenix hops. Cheers!
3.5
339 reviews
Easton, United States
Community reviews
Draft at belgian cafe in philly, pa. Pours a cloudy amber body with small off white head. Aroma of sweet malt, citrus and pine hop. The flavor is mostly tamed bitterness, but nice pine finish and aftertaste
on tap at belgian. pours hazy gold. aroma and flavor is bitter but well. alanced.
Bottle. Pours an amber body with a yellow off white head. This was not fresh when i had it and the hops dropped out a bit a bit grassy earth y herbal and soapy. A mineral earth warming with some caramel and faint citrus notes. Still a modest warming with a mild malt bill. Decent.
Nose is full of cardboard, cider. Murky orange pour, no head, lace. Cardboard, newspaper, candy orange. Ligering paper. Dry and old. Would be way better not aged. Still hoppy and a little bitter but its aged and cardboarded. Yeah it is what it is hoes.
Pours a very hazy dark amber color with golden caramel brown hues when held to a light source and a very thin fizzy off-white head that quickly dissipates.
Very malty and leathery aroma with only some subtle hops and lots of sweet alcohol. Smells more like an english barleywine.
The flavor again is reminiscent of an English barleywine with a strong earthy leathery malt character and lots ond sweet boozy alcohol heat. The hops are very faint and only slightly bitter. Alcohol warmth in the finish. Very disappointing.
12oz bottle courtesy of sholland119 poured into a tulip.
Pours a murky orangish brown with a tons of floaties that settles toward the bottle. There is a big creamy off-white head that leaves very good lacing.
The aroma has some malts and a ton of green apple tartness with only a hint of hops.
The taste has a toffee and caramel malt sweetness with a strong citrus-like hoppiness that seems to be melding into a cardboard type taste that’s not all that pleasant. There is a tartness in the finish and a ton of alcohol, which really burns in the finish.
The mouthfeel is exceptionally smooth and slick with a soft carbonation.
This one is clearly well past its prime and the hops have soured and turned into a tinny, cardboard flavor that really limits the drinkability. Going downhill fast.
Hazy gold pour. Fluffy white head. Interesting aroma. Lots of hops, caramel and a bit of a yeasty funk. Flavor is dry and hoppy with some wet wood and bit of fruit. Good stuff!
From the Bottle at Tom’s Ultimate Glasgow Tasting, Blackfriars 01/12/2007
Strong hop aroma. Golden coloured and slightly hazy in appearance. Hoppy with a crisp and bitter lasting finish.
12 oz bottle served in a tulip glass. Pour is a very murky brown, like a flowing river after a thunderstorm, with enough floaties to make the comparison quite accurate. Nose is caramel, toffee, earth, and very faint hops. I’ve never drank an aged IPA (3 years old) but I am guessing the lack of hop in the aroma means it is past its prime. Taste is hop bitter, but not much of the other interesting varieties that usually accompany the hop, earth, caramel, and mellowed booze. This is a pretty tasty brew. It’s a shame I cannot try a fresh bottle to enjoy it at its best.
Bottle from Capones Pours a cloudy light brown with a light tan head has some floaters and particles in it. The head leaves quickly. Has a good aroma of sweet malts and good crisp hops. Has a good carbonation. The mouthfeel is decent. The flavor is balance well. Not real hoppy but not too sweet. The alcohol is well hidden. Has a full body. The finish is good and it has a lasting aftertaste. It is good but definately strong.
12oz bonus from adrian910ss. Thanks a lot for this one man! Pours a swampy reddish brown color with a big beige head that left a ton of lacing. Nose was bursting with pineapple then gave way to sweet caramel and toffee. Flavor held strong hop bitterness balanced with a wall of sweet malts. A very underrated brew in my opinion.
notes from august of last year at kuhnhenns. poured a cloudy orange with a white head. aroma, hops, sulfer, pine , grapefruit, alcohol. flavor grapefruit, sweet alcohol, bitterness dry.
Bomber. Pretty much what you’d expect from a two-year old IIPA: this is past its prime. Pours nearly clear copper with a lacy off-white head. Some white grape and cardboardy toffee in the aroma. Full body and moderate carbonation. Sweet toffee and citrus taste with some pine an earthy bitterness on the finish. Probably should have let this one go for a couple more years and served it as an American barleywine.
Pours fiery amber, nice beige head. Nose is on its last legs, some faint malt and the remnants of hop still hanging on, but it’s all sugary syrup and alcohol now, very toxic stuff. Flavor is even closer to the grave, just some bitter leaf notes, tea, minor chocolate actually, and large alcohol. Mouth is a little thin, but there’s still some carbonation left. Overall pretty weak, but given that this is a 2+ yr old IIPA, I think it would have been pretty good when fresh. It’s as good as the currently fresh Founders IPAs.
old old bottle I spotted at the back of my cellar. 12oz, I thought this was long overdue to be opened. Drank at cellar temp because I’m lazy right now. Spurted too, so there you go. Pours dark orange with 1 finger tan head. Nose is sweet and dead dead dead. Taste is pretty much exactly what tye says, pine sol, blech, blech blech, nasty.
12oz bottle. Aroma of Pine-Sol, and other solvents. Slightly resiny. Assloads of sweet malt. Poundcake. Earthy, wet leaf pile and tons of alcohol. Smells like Off bug repellent. Pours a thick, hazed, dark orange with a resilient, frothy off white head. This is no longer an IIPA. It’s now a thick, cloying, boozy ASA. Fat, chewy body. Lots of alcohol. Tons of residual sugar sweetness. Just a shade of oily high-alpha hops. Good lord... It’s like drinking floor cleaner. Fusel alcohol... Chewy malt. Slick and oily mouth feel. Ugh... never had this one fresh but time certainly didn’t treat this one well. Thanks anyway Ed!
In short: An over-the-top sugary, alcoholised, hoppy and ultimately not-cohesive boosted IPA.
How: Bottle (22oz I think). Drank some months ago (backlog)
The look: Cloudy orange body topped by a small white head
In long: Nose is floral and foresty with some alcohol fumes. Taste is rather sweet but the body lacks corpulence, this is more sugary thin caramel than corpulent round caramel. Alcohol is apparent but still feels less than the unreasonable 11.7%. A little rhubarb annoyed me. A dirtiness sensation. Unexpectedly drinkable despite its size but overall it just felt like a bunch of extreme flavours thrown at me. It’s retired now and with so many superior extreme American IPAs to chose from its disappearance has gone as unnoticed as the departure of a fat chick from a wild spring break party.
Bottle: Poured an orange with not much head. The aroma was somewhat oxidized. The flavor was overpowering. Way too malty, unbalanced and way too much alcohol feel. Overall, age has not been kind to this one as it found its way down the drain. It gets an E for effort in my book since it was probably good at one point.
Botella. Hazy orange colour with a good steady white head leaving a good lacing. Sweet and hoppy aroma. Very good mouthfeel. The flavour is dry and quite hoppy with alcohol, malt and quite sweet. Hoppy sweet alco finish. Good but the alochol is too dominent.
thanks ungstrup for sharing a retired beer i never tasted.
appears amber, small white head. sourish aleish caramellish aroma. flavor is barley wineish, subdued hops, tons of alc. i found it too alcoholic.
12 fl oz bottle, courtesy of Ungstrup. Pours hazy orange with a slowly diminishing white head. Dry wooden, vague oxidised aroma. Dark caramel malty note. Sweet malty, dense hoppy and slight wooden flavour following this. Smooth mix between sweet caramelish malt and bitter hoppy finish. Nice one.
A big thanks to Adrian for this, and for several other beers I am about to rate! Rust colored pour with light froth. Strong nose-filling aroma - hops, sweetness, strong alcohol. The flavor begins sweet and grainy, then ends in juicy, grapefruity, bitter Phoenix hops. Rich and powerful with alcohol warmth and hop tingle spreading along the palate. There are tastes of prunes and whiskey in there too. This is one of the more enjoyable extreme beers I have come across - definitely an imperial IPA, but still sweet and balanced. I like Weyerbacher’s anniversary ale concept too. Superior.
12oz bottle, courtesy of The_Epeeist, thanks Chris. Murky orange/amber pour with a white head. Kind of a sour wet cardboard aroma. Same flavor as the smell, different and kind of sweet. A little past it’s prime, but still not bad.
22 oz bottle, consumed 10/18/2008. Pours a hazy orange color with a small white head. aroma is mild hops, citrus, and malts. Body was extremely smooth, almost creamy, no describable heavy alcohol taste as the alcohol appears to be masked quite well.
Malt Bomb USA! Tripple IPA sounded good, but this one grew up on shit st. Malt and nasty hops were all I got, and then the drain received the rest.
Courtesy of lb4lb. Pours hazy orange-brown with thin off white head. The aroma is a bit different and gives forth mild amounts of muted pine hops, chewy sticky malts and alcohol heat. From time to time I get a whiff of cherry, prune and plum like fruity esters. The aroma comes across too light for the style. The taste seems smooth and mellow as a result of a few years on the shelf. I imagine it must have been pretty punchy while fresh. But now I get muted rolled over pine hops that still have some bitterness left along with brown sugar sweetness and some chewy malts. By midway cherry and plum hard candy surface along with small amounts of alcohol and a faint sense of pepper. Toward the finish it takes on an almost grainy to nutty maltiness as the pine hop bitterness builds to a tepid level. Although mellowed with age it still has bold flavors creating a sipper beer like experience. I think I’ll nurse this for a while. I say, YUM!
12oz bottle from July 2006. Almost 2 years old. Pour is a candy-apple red. The head is a thin layer of white cream. I can smell it from several feet away. Its strong and unpleasant. When I stick my nose in the glass, the smell isn’t much better. Sticky acidic hops that almost smell rotten. After the first sip I knew this is a drainpour. I was afraid to drink it fresh, buts still gross.
12 oz. bonus bottle from JB175. This poured cloudy and deep amber in color with some copper running through and a minimal head. The aromas were of burnt caramel, raisin, plum and a slight amount of citrus and spiciness. In the mouth it was full-bodied and concentrated with dark fruit and dark caramel flavors. The finish is long and lingering but does show some alcohol. This is an unctous beer that is almost too much.
22. Thanks, Colin! This held up amazingly well. Cloudy dark amber with creamy tan head. Dense rings of lace. Huge candied oranges and blue cheese nose. Without a doubt the oddest nose I’ve come across anywhere in the ipa family. Rich, creamy body on the high side of medium. Sharp carb, but not overly much of it. Candied oranges, apricots, and mangos on the mid-palate. Malt balance under all this hop madness. Orange pith/bitter apricot on the finish. Offbeat and quite powerful, but still fun to drink.
5-18-08 bottle shared with lb4lb thanks to DrJay and The_Epeeist
Super dense thick unfiltered mud with a thin ivory colored head. One of the thickest, densest beers I’ve seen. Smell is straight nail polish remover - big ammonia. Flavor is heavy cough syrup. It is super thick and has a heavy alcohol boozy flavor. Really thick and hard to swallow. Looks a little like poo water. Too much alcohol and weight for me. Unique but it is somewhat of a bipolar beer.