Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shut-down Ale

Type: American Strong Ale
Origin: Petaluma, CA
Price: $1.79/12oz
ABV: 9.6%
NSP: 19.04
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Full disclosure: my inspiration for purchasing and reviewing this is not particularly wholesome.  It's not because everything Lagunitas makes is delicious- that'd be too straightfoward and understandable.  I was watching the local news recently, and they showed a report of some dude who got nicked for a dewey.  The cameraman zoomed in on the console of the alleged perp's car, and lo and behold, an empty bottle of Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown.  So I decided to see if the beer's worth the fucking idiocy of a DUI.  It's not, nor is any other beer, in case you were wondering.

Going in, I thought this was a GHB-enhanced brown ale.  And it sort of smells like that, but instead of just overly sweet caramel aromas, there's a good hop punch provided by the 66.6 (is that number coincidental?  Given Lagunitas' style, probably not) IBU with the malt providing backing vocals.  There's still a good bit of sweetness, but it's not over the top like a brown ale, because the hops cut it down to size.  And no mustiness, which is in my opinion criteria #1 for a successful malty beer.

Flavor-wise, it tastes not unlike an India brown ale made by someone with the skills of, say, Lagunitas.  Lots of malt flavor, but thankfully dry, and a good bitterness level.  It's fairly straightforward- there's not much more to it than that.  But it's good, and it slaps you around with a well-concealed 9.6%.

Just as everything Lagunitas is, it's worth a try.  It's not something I'm going to want every day (in fact, I may never be in the mood to get it again just because it's not my favorite style), but it's tasty.  Incidentally, according to craftbeer.com, a 170-lb man who acutely (i.e. just now) ingested a 12-oz bottle of Lagunitas UISA will have a BAC of 0.031, well below DUI limits (disclaimer: this does not mean that Non-Snob endorses shotgunning two UISAs and going for a Sunday drive).  So homeboy in the news report must've been hitting the bottle a bit preemptively before moronically motoring around with an empty fucking beer bottle.  What a dipshit.