Posted on 29/12/21
Oli Meade
The year might have ended – but brilliant brewing continues.
This week, I’m recommending people tuck into Polly’s new QIPA, a trio from Burnt Mill and a Black IPA that showcases how good the style can be.
Ready?
Worthy of a place in anyone’s fridge right now is This Never Happened QIPA by Polly’s which, at 13%, is comfortably the biggest beer Polly’s have ever brewed!
A mammoth 80kg of tropical hops went into this, which includes the single biggest dry hop charge Polly’s have ever commissioned.
A soupy, pulpy, hop bomb dripping with pineapple, mango, passionfruit, and papaya… plus a delicate bitterness for balance right at the end. This is top level brewing!
Track are known for their smooth beers. Beak, meanwhile, are known for making things all soft and fluffy. And the two have just joined forces for Spark Extra Pale Ale! Light and fluffy, this also boasts 5 different hop varietals that all get their turn in the spotlight.
Spark is at points tropical, at points herbal, and at other points resinous – a complex yet easy-drinking cheeky extra pale ale.
In their new Gardens of Green series, Burnt Mill combine just two hops in a single brew. Then they tailor their recipe and brewing process to best express the chosen hop combination, to really maximise flavour.
In this, their first iteration of the series, Burnt Mill have paired two wildly popular hops, citra & simcoe, for a zesty, cirtusy NEIPA backed up by big, dank, piney notes. This isn’t juice masquerading as beer – it’s a proper beer brewed by a serious and unflinching brewery that isn’t afraid to shun trends.
A second Burnt Mill number we’ve loved this week is Citra Fog Green Hopped NEIPA – a must for anyone with an affinity for the wonderful, zesty citra hop.
This is one of only a few beers you can ever find that uses green hops rather than dried hops – which means Burnt Mill picked the hops then had them in the beer within 24 hours.
You don’t get much fresher than this – it’s outstanding, and just 6 left in stock at the time of writing!
Burnt Mill don’t shout about themselves as much as some other breweries, preferring to let their beers do the talking, and that’s definitely the case with Orion NEIPA.
The brewery pours no fewer than seven different hop varietals into this soupy NEIPA for a fruit punchbowl that’s as varied as just about any beer you’ll find in the category.
(By the way, I never really intended to include 3 Burnt Mill beers in this week’s round up – but each of them deserves their place in this list. They just so happen to be from a single brewery – fair play Burnt Mill!)
Fight Like Hell DIPA is a banger of a DIPA brewed to fight a banging cause.
The beer itself is everything you want in a DIPA: big, thick and juicy with a bit hit of dank. There’s a lovely mango and peach punchbowl going on, with a subtle (but noticeable) bitterness that kicks in late to keep things balanced.
The fact that a percentage of the profits for this beer goes to charities makes it even sweeter.
Polly’s reckon 2021 was the year of the resurgence of the Black IPA. I’m personally not so sure – but only because from what I’ve seen the buzz around black IPAs has been growing for a good few years now.
They’re a bit of a paradoxical brew, using roasted malts but then tropical hops, they’re franken-beers that on paper sound odd but in reality work wonders.
This particular iteration calls in Sabro for coconut-y pina colada vibes, then citra and mosaic for mango and blueberry drizzled with a squeeze of lemon. That’s all presented in a dark beer format.
Fruity and roasty, this is a right treat.
There’s more Track just in, more Polly’s just in, and even more Burnt Mill just in than the beers mentioned above – get rummaging and see what you can find!
In the last few days we’ve also taken in a IPA/Lager hybrid from Lost and Grounded in Running with Sceptres IPL.
It’s of course still kinda the festive season, which means it’s your last chance to treat yourself to the likes of Pentrich’s December Dreaming TIPA, or Azvex’s Hazelnut Dreamcake Coconut & Hazelnut Imperial Stout, or Polly’s Against The Darkness Christmas Spiced Imperial Stout, or Amundsen, or S43’s Quality Street Stouts, or any reorders of any beers you’ve loved over the last few days – replenish your stock and have a blast.
Happy drinking!
Oli, Olly & Charlie
(The three people behind Craft Metropolis)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
