Bald Man Killer Queen Review

Name: Bald Man Killer Queen
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 9.5%
IBUs: N/A

A few months ago, I paid a visit to Bald Man Brewing and thought their offerings to be solid. Since I've last visited them, they've not only expanded their availability to some area bars but they've also released their first bottled release, which we have today.

I give to you Killer Queen, an English Style Imperial IPA that I picked up last weekend but was unable to consume due to a bout of illness that I had. It's always exciting to see new local breweries become available but before I start, I do want to address something that is a huge pet peeve of mine in beer: corks.

I spent nearly 15 minutes trying to get this bottle open but the cork simply wouldn't budge and I accidentally ended up ripping the top off by mistake as I tried relentlessly to open it up. In fact, the only way I was able to "open" this was by pushing down the remainder of the cork into the bottle where it could free itself.

What's wrong with a simple bottle cap? There's no need to unnecessarily complicate things by making a beer hard to open. You might as well have a lock combination for the beer in order to get it open. I understand you want to keep the contents of a beer secure or make it stand out from the others, but there's no point in having a hard-to-open corked beer if no one's going to be able to get it open to enjoy it.

Appearance - Hazy dark orange color with a mild amount of visible carbonation. The head is nice and foamy and the lacing is quite plentiful

Aroma - Piney hops and strong caramel malts with some light kiwi notes with a hint of barley.

Taste - Strong caramel malts upfront which linger throughout, while towards the back opens up to some moderate piney/dank hops. The aftertaste is made up mainly of bitter hops with some mild toffee sweetness.

Despite the cumbersome cork situation, this is a pretty good beer. It's fairly heavy on the malts and moderate on the hops which is standard for an English IPA in terms of flavor. If you're willing to deal with the cork (and use a corkscrew to open this,) then you'll probably find something to like about this beer.

Bald Man Killer Queen - 8/10