Posted on 11/08/21
Oli Meade
After Neon Raptor brewed 3 birthday beers, you might expect this list to end after reviewing all 3.
But look beyond the obvious!
There’s also been new Overtone, new Pomona Island and new Pressure Drop this week.
Plus, unexpected hop gems from Rivington and Little Monster.
So without further ado, let’s chat the best new beers in this week!
Neon Raptor turned 5 recently, then brewed up 3 massive flavour-jammed special birthday brews to celebrate!
Open The Door TIPA is the obligatory humungous, juicy, 10% Triple IPA complete with no less than four hop varietals, and packed to the rafters with each for an epic flavour explosion!
With Get On The Floor Imperial Stout you’ve got rich milk chocolate intermingling with specialty roasted coffee, and also a 14.5% ABV that seems like it could well tie in with the beer’s name…
And Everybody Walk The Dinosaur is a mega 10% imperial sour complete with blackberry, cherry, maple and chocolate, which makes it basically a black forest gateaux in one wicked little tin. An awesome brewery & special beers all brewed for one epic celebration – try one, collect them all. Just maybe refrain from drinking them all at once!
I’m as in love with Overtone as ever, and maybe even more so than usual thanks to the latest drop we got this week. Plur DIPA you should already know about, but if not think juicy and tropical gets the Overtone treatment, then Captain, I Am Fading DIPA is basically one enormous fruit cocktail beer.
Honeydew melon, a nice slice of pineapple, juicy peach and a wedge of green apple – its ace!
I also have a lot of love for Lancashire’s Rivington for their new (500ml!) Days Of Candy Pale Ale, a bit like Box Car’s recent Candy effort it veers on the sweet side, if you can imagine a citrus-tinged west coast pale blended with a bit of candied orange you’re not far off.
Maybe this won’t appeal to everyone, but Rivington are a decent brewery doing great stuff… if you haven’t tried them yet, seek their beers out!
Capping the hops off this week is Little Monster’s new Lucha Lucha DIPA, which after Neon Raptor is what I reckon will be most popular this week.
Truckloads of oats and wheat make for a beer so creamy it’s almost spreadable, then mountains of Strata, Motueka, and Amarillo combine for a dank and tropical DIPA with juicy melon.
A big, bold DIPA you can’t help but love – fresh, fun brewing from a brewery aiming for just that.
Gipsy Hill specials are back in, and that means a new Squashed!
Squashed: Pineapple, Jalapeño and Lime Sour does sound mad, but it’s basically fresh pressed pineapple juice with a big squeeze of lime, then all transferred over fresh jalapeños which add a subtle, spicy kick!
Pomona Island are back in with new stuff!
There’s a brilliant DDH Table Beer to get to know, there’s Plastic Palace Alice Sour IPA with Orange Blossom, and then there’s the best of the bunch for me – Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die Wild Cherry & Blackcurrant Sour DIPA.
This gloop pours a hypnotic cherry red, and wild cherrie make for a real mouth shriveller. Blackcurrants eventually offer a sweet lifeline that, against your better judgement, makes sure you return for more and more!
Finally from our old friends Pressure Drop, there’s something a bit special about Hidden Meaning Yuzu Sour. It might be the lactose that makes things oh-so-creamy. Or it could be the Japanese yuzu for pure citrus tartness.
Most likely it’s the whole package – this is a lemon meringue pie… just in beer form!
It’s holiday season over here so we’ve been trying to limit the amount of new stuff we gather up but when the beers are this good it’s hard to resist…
There’s more in from Overtone on the sour front, with a double drop that maybe even rivals their hop bombs in terms of quality. Mellow Sun Imperial Sour’s sour citrus and sweet pineapple combine for sunshine in a can, and A Real Peach Sour is a peach smoothie of a beer.
Left Handed Giant’s new Blender Sour is a big, thick and juicy banana and pineapple smoothie with cinnamon and sweet brown sugar. Can anyone really say no?!
Left Handed Giant’s new hop drops aren’t bad either. Some Other Spring IPA is clean yet fruity, crisp yet juicy, while new-in Seven Sacred Pools IPA is gooseberry-tinged resin.
Pressure Drop’s hop drops don’t stop, this time with two NEIPAs in pineapple-heavy Donatella’s Disco Night DIPA and a restock of the popular fruity, juicy, hazy Am I Being Basic? NEIPA.
Rivington’s Very Insulting What You Said About My Coat has to be one of the best named goses ever, especially when paired with non-fruited sour You Know I Know Sour IPA.
Little Monster continue the sour charge with Let’s Dance Gose, while Hoff Lager is this week’s stand-out lager.
Elsewhere Hammerton serve up dark goodness with more City of Cake Chocolate Fudge Cake Stout, plus Wald Black Forest Gateau Imperial Stout and Pecilla Vanilla & Pecan Stout. Each is as epic as it soounds.
And finally, a couple of weeks back we sold out of Beak’s damn near perfect WCIPA Gurr. It’s now back in stock – so this time, be quick!
As always, I hope you get to try some of these magnificent beers this week.
Cheers, happy drinking, and feel free to shout if you have any questions,
Oli
(The founder)
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