Brewery: Independence Brewing Company
Beer: High Boy Tangerine
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
ABV: 9.0%
Character: Double Dry-hopped and brewed with 81 lbs per barrel of tangerine puree
Ratings: BeerAdvocate: 3.93/5 | Untappd: 3.84/5
Metal Connection: PIG DESTROYER – Fuck you up and Get High (Dwarves Cover)

BeerMetal Rating: 4.5/5

What the Hell? I have been drinking beers from Independence Brewing Company since at least early January, 2012, according to my Untappd. What shocks me is that this is the first time anything from them has been featured here on this site. Sorry about that guys. I started with their Bootlegger Brown Ale back then. Locally here in San Antonio, one of my best friends is the area Sales Manager for this brewery. I feel like I have been drinking a lot of their beer lately. Oh well, one more won’t hurt. Who am I foolin’? I’ll have more after this. I know the guys over there have sparked interest on being guests on the podcast, so hopefully that will come to light one day.

This one comes to us in a 16 oz tallboy can. So this Tangerine beer is a variant of just the regular Double IPA, High Boy. I bring this up cause of the can design. The regular High Boy is colored in blue, as this one is in reddish dark orange and yellow/light orange. The main focus on the artwork is a drawn old truck riding off road in a wheelie position with the two front wheels off the ground. The word tangerine is tagged along the side of the truck from back to front. In large letters above the truck is the logo for High Boy, which actually takes up majority of the can. I mean they could have made the truck larger, and the words smaller, but them again, I like that the truck is on one side, and not wrapped around the can. That would look awkward if the can is positioned different, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, and the whole background color is white, so this image and words really pop off the can. It’s really eye catching. On the product description that the wrote about this beer, they do say that beer roars like a pre-1977 Ford F-250, AKA the Highboy.

I poured this beer into an IPA specific specialty glass by Spiegelau. This beer’s appearance was a slightly hazy light orange/golden color that was topped with a large 1.5 inch white foamy head, which did actually stick around as a foamy pillow on top of the beer as I drank this, leaving an excellent sheet of lacing down the glass.The color really did match the name of this beer perfectly.

The aroma was a nice mix of different hops and fruit. There was a resinous dank aroma blended perfectly with a big hit of citrus from, what I assume is a blend of some hops and the large amount of tangerine puree that is used to make this beer. A tangerine really has a different smell and taste than an orange. In my opinion, they’re sweeter, and lighter, which is what’s going on here in the nose of this beer. As I swirled the glass, there was baked white bread loaf behind the dank and citrus.

The taste is even more impressive than the aroma. I love how the flavors were at war on my palate. As I took a drink, at first all I got was bitter citrus, then the flavor would switch to the dank, cause usually that flavor is pretty dominant and overpowering, in my opinion. Besides the dank and the citrus, just like the nose, there was a hint of white bread loaf. I loved how those flavors would switch around. It made drinking this beer a pleasurable experience.

This High Boy had a medium body. Moderate carbonation. The mouthfeel was a bit harsh, astringent, but yet with a slight smoothness. I couldn’t get a real alcohol burn at all, but I could tell that this was an Imperial IPA. It did have a satisfying boldness to it. The finish was dry, as it should be with this much hop profile in it.

Overall, this beer was outstanding. I really loved the tangerine added to this beer. As this Imperial IPA had the dank element to it, it was quite juicy (ugh, I hate using that word!). I always say when a brewery says there is an ingredient in the beer, I want to taste that exact ingredient somewhere in the damn beer, and Independence delivered on their promise of having tangerine in here.

Metal Connection: The Metal Connection song used for this beer is a bit of a strange one. Pig Destroyer is one of my favorite Grindcore bands. Among the trve Metal elitists, this band is frowned upon for being a “Relapse band,” a category made up by those who basically hate bands who are signed to Relapse Records in the modern day, since that label has changed so much from the beginning days. You know how elitists are, if it isn’t old, it isn’t good bullshit! “Demos or nothing, mother Fuckers!” Anyway, I grew up a bit different and just liked Metal, all forms of Metal. I was turned onto this band in 2000, when Relapse Records released a compilation album called 38 Counts of Battery, and it consisted of the band’s previous demos, splits and special releases. The reason I am not going into too much detail on the band’s history is because I had already done a brief summary when I featured them previously on a beer review of Permanent Funeral, which is an Imperial IPA brewed by 3 Floyds Brewing in collaboration with the band, Pig Destroyer themselves. Alright well let me finally introduce you to the Metal Connection song. I went with a song called “Fuck you up and Get High” that was originally released in 2002 when Pig Destroyer did a split CD with the band Benümb. This album was released as a small limited run of 3″ small CDs. Yes those were a thing at one point as they would fit in a normal disc changer (remember those?). In 2004, Robotic Empire would release another compilation of previously released songs by Pig Destroyer and our featured song was on this compilation as well. “Fuck you up and Get High” is actually a cover song, originally recorded by the American Punk Rock group, The Dwarves. Pig Destroyer, of course makes the song their own. Here’s the funny part. This song is only about 35 seconds. It took longer to read this review than the actual song. Oh well, just keep repeating the fucking song until it’s done! Enjoy!