Trillium Heavy Mettle

The Stats
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 9.30%
Current Ratings...
- Beer Advocate: 4.57/5
- RateBeer: 4.16/5

There's both a positive and a negative to releasing a beer on a weekday. Obviously the crowds and lines aren't as big as they would be on a Saturday, so the chances of acquiring said special beer are greatly in your favor. Then on the other hand, it can be a pain to schedule a day off, especially if the release date is announced the day prior. This was my conundrum when the first batch of Heavy Mettle was released back in August. Today though, I was able to duck out early and get to Congress St. to pick up my allotment.

So, now that my pathetic moment of ungrateful bitching is done, let's introduce Trillium's Heavy Mettle. It's an amped-up version of their Mettle coming in at 9.30%. The difference between the two is that the standard Mettle was brewed with I believe Citra, Columbus, and Amarillo. The only difference in hops for Heavy Mettle was that they swapped Citra for Galaxy. Heavy Mettle also used about 30% more hops and bumped the abv up from 8.40 to 9.30%.

The pour is one of the haziest IPA's I've ever seen. Just a murky, dirty, hazy light orange with about two fingers of white head. It looks like orange juice with an obscene amount of pulp.

Orange juice on the appearance and on the aroma. Some fresh peach and mango with pure hop juice, some resin, and acidic grapefruit.

Hop bomb? This is more like a hop nuke. My God, this is just so damn bitter, almost mouth-puckering. With most IPA's, it starts off bitter in the front and finishes juicy, but this is just an assault of hops and hop resin from beginning to end. That's not to say the beer is entirely devoid of any of those tropical fruity notes that were on the aroma. As the beer washes over the middle of my tongue and hits that finish, a noticeable wave of pineapple, lemon, and grapefruit are there to combat the overwhelming hop character. The taste also has a lot of resin and a good amount of pine.

Considering the hop presence, I have to say that this drinks much easier than you'd think for a 9.30% hop monster. It's not thick or syrupy for such a hop-loaded big beer which makes for high (and dangerous) drinkability. There's no unpleasant lingering bitter flavors and there's a noticeable warmth in my chest on some swigs, but nothing I would call anything close to an alcohol presence. While rather dry on the finish, it's not bothersome or preventing me from gulping this whole thing down.

Heavy Mettle is as close to a "palate destroyer" as you can get. That being said, it still has the uncanny ability to drink easily. While it's predecessors had more citrus on the aroma and taste, Heavy Mettle has significantly more hop juice, resin, and pine. A true Imperial IPA in every sense, Heavy Mettle has obliterated my palate and left me wanting more. Imagine a pine tree covered in hops. Man, I wish I had that in my living room for Christmas.

Rating
9.8/10