I popped open a bottle of the big red ipa yesterday and here is what I found....
Poured a deep deep red...mahogany, garnets, rubies, reddish brown.
Head formation was slow and modest, 1 finger, slightly reddish, very dense, thick, rich, sticky, creamy, tiny bubbles
Carbonation was low - too low - only a very few tiny bubbles rising to the surface.
Mouthfeel was creamy, malty, sweet - too sweet (high FG?) to balance bittering hops
Aroma was of rich malts, bready, caramels, hops came in late, never overpowering - even the dry hops
Drinkability was great albeit sweet (a touch cloying), alcohol was unnoticeable, but I could feel it after 25 ounces.
Wish I could've got my FG down a little to dry things up. I added 2/3 corn sugar instead of 3/4 to help reduce the possibility of bottle bombs. And of course the temp plummeted after bottling.....so they never got to sit at 70 to prime properly. I'll open another in 10 days or so and I moved the bottles in front of my heater so maybe after some more time things will improve.
Thanks again everyone for the wonderful help, ideas, recommendations, and criticism. I'm very happy with the result as is. I might even enter it into a homebrew competition next door at DBC. My second batch (Belgo-Am IPA) is well under way and I'm picking ingredients up tomorrow for a Levitation clone.
D-