Beer Review: Murray's Icon 2IPA

The Murray's Icon 2IPA is one of the beers I purchased to drink while watching the 2008 New Zealand election. According to my beer dealer, only a pallet of this beer has been made, so the one I drank for this review could be the only one I ever taste (and you may never taste it).

It's a big 7.5% alc/vol and brewed in Taylors Arm north of Sydney, New South Wales.

What the bottle says

"At Murray's, we handcraft the beers we love to drink. Our Icon 2IPA is an extreme beer thats BIG on flavour and aroma. This is not a beer for the faint-hearted. Drink on its own if you dare, but pairs well with intensely hot and spicy foods."

It doesn't say much about the actual beer, just bad punctuation and sentence structure. I drunk this without food, but the strong hoppy flavour would probably work well with a spicy dish.

Appearance

The beer is a dark amber brown with a golden glow when held up to the light. The head is soft and white.

Smell

The aroma is classic for a strong hoppy beer and the hops dominate as soon as it is poured.

Taste

This is a strong beer with a hoppy and piney taste. Following the hops, the malts have a strong burnt caramel flavour. The beer leaves a very subtle sourness at the front of the mouth. The (very) high alcohol content didn't do too much to the flavour, although its very (pleasantly) dry. All in all, the Icon 2IPA is a strong beer with strong flavour.

Mouth feel

The mouth feel is smooth and creamy but with a bit of a sharp bite at the end of the tongue.

Overall

If you like hops, you shall like this beer. It is very dry. It reminded me more of an APA rather than an IPA. If I see it again I will likely give it another go. 7/10.