Thirty-One Planes - 16

We ventured out to our first brewery in months. I was excited to try something fresh. I looked over the menu and their Thirty-One Planes Imperial IPA looked looked like the newest beer on tap. The name itself is a hat-tip to the 31 planes of existence explored in Buddhism, and the idea of getting better with each rebirth. This DIPA is in its 16 revision. With that much fine tuning you know it’s going to be delicious.

This beer spends about 30 days in the tanks due to its extensive dry hopping which gives this beer its distinctive aroma, flavor and look.

The appearance is very pleasing. It’s a clear amber that has minimal head. There’s a nice halo with a few lingering bubbles in the middle of the glass. There’s a bit of lacing, but it’s not too crazy.

The aroma is bright and hoppy. I was getting some nice malt, sweet bread and earthy pine and floral hops. It’s a very hop forward beer and that’s because of the dry hopping. The base is a great IPA with all the classic characteristics while the additional processing creates a DIPA that’s straight up aromatic.

The flavor was surprisingly sweet and complex. I was getting way more floral hop and malt sweetness than the aroma lead on too. It was not overly sweet, but it felt like there was honey or something added. I also notice that there was a heavy pine resin flavor lingered.

The mouth feel is smooth and pretty light for a DIPA. It’s a medium body with a medium amount of carbonation. It’s a was thick enough to fill you up. I actually only had this beer while at the brewery. It was a sipping beer which is not always the case with this type of beer.