Posted on 03/06/21
Oli Meade
It’s been hop madness once again on the new beer front this week, with QIPAs on top of TIPAs piled on DIPAs piled on IPAs. Some beautiful new pales too – it’s been a bonkers beery bonanza!
Which were best??
I’m glad you asked.
Here are the very best new beers I’ve discovered this week.
Polly’s recent Spectrum range was pure genius, and Polly’s have taken Spectrum TIPA and made it even bigger!
Fleeting Sound Triple Dry Hopped TIPA boasts the brewery’s biggest EVER dry hop bill, and the result is a pure flavour bomb of pink grapefruit, gooseberry and lychee, tangerine, mango and berries. Insane!
There’s only 9 of these in stock at the time of writing – you’ll need to be quick to get in on this one!
Then you’ve got Northern Monk’s new Fresh From The North QIPA 002 – I told you this week was hop madness!
This beast’s giant hop bill is pineapple drowned in pineapple (yep, thats’s how juicy-pineapple laden this thing is), finished with giant squeezes of orange and lime juice, all tossed into a mega fruit salad. Take care – it’s 12.2%.
Next, Howling Hops definitely don’t get as much attention as they deserve, and I’m going to do my best to rectify that by recommending Howling Hops/Floc collab Gentle Storm DIPA as a must-try hoppy beer this week, in a week of very special hoppy beers.
This epic Double IPA leverages on-trend Strata hops to their tropical max, which means you get rolling waves of passionfruit, lime and mango plus a big hit of dank from the mountain of underlying hops.
We all need more beer like this!
Even sour specialists Vault are in on the hop action this week – the wicked OJ IPA combines a huge dose of mandarin juice with Simcoe and Mosaic hops for another of Vault’s famous Sour IPAs.
This incarnation is as thick as a blended bucket of juicy ripe oranges, and about the same colour as your morning OJ too.
Refreshing? You bet. Check this out.
And a mega 21% of Gipsy Hill’s Squashed: Smoked Grapefruit & Rosemary Sour Ale is pure fruit, which gives you a good indication of what you can expect from this!
You’ve got all that fruit paired with a base of beechwood smoked malts too, making this a smokey sour grapefruit spectacle. A lovely hint of rosemary adds a fresh dimension.
Phantom Brewing Co’s Soak Up The Sun Peach & Apricot Sour might be more down the line, but trust me, that doesn’t make it any less special!
What you want when the sun is out is a refreshing and soft fruit sour, and with the sun finally joining us this year this sour – brewed with peach and apricot and a lovely dusting of sweet vanilla – is one you’ll be glad you’ve got up your sleeve.
Left Handed Giant’s Solitude Vanilla Hazelnut & Coffee Milk Stout is back, and it’s better than it’s ever been before! This year, dark wizards LHG have switched up the coffee beans in their silky chocolate ganache milk stout, with New Cut Coffee beans complimenting roasty chocolate malts, then a healthy wave of hazelnut and vanilla finishing things brilliantly.
Northern Monk/Emperor’s Brewery collab Culinary Concepts 2.0 Imperial Banana Cronut Stout isn’t half bad either!
As a 14% pastry stout, there’s mega bite to this oozing pain-au-chocolat of an imperial stout, with peanut, biscoff and cacao nibs all supporting a huge dose of banana puree.
This decadent beer is sweet foam bananas, cased in roasted chocolate malt. A brilliant beer.
Finally, Kernel’s 2021 edition of their eminently popular India Double Porter: Mosaic & Sabro came flying out the blocks this week, new and improved just a you’d expect.
Mosaic & Sabro make for layers of coconut and blueberry, and the strong roasted malts keep the whole thing nice and toasty. This is a great brewer brewing at their very best.
Howling Hops dominate the hop haul this week. On top of the magnificent Gentle Storm DIPA there’s all sorts of hoppy fun to be had, including the smooth pineapple and blueberry tinged Flash Pump DDH Pale Ale.
Sticking with the hops, there’s some wicked new stuff from Arpus just in, including a DDH Galaxy & Vic Secret TIPA. How many times can I say it? This week is slathered in hops!
Amongst the QIPAs, TIPAs and DIPAs, To Øl’s hazy session IPA is a welcome change of pace, as is their Snublejuice Gluten-Free Session IPA. Meanwhile, Brew York’s Calmer Chameleon American Pale Ale is just 3.9% (and perfect for those on a budget – just £2.95 a can).
Gipsy Hill’s First Orders IPA is everything that’s awesome about the craft beer industry – with each can’s QR code you can nominate your local to win a free keg of Hepcat. Gipsy Hill are doing their bit to help pubs out.
Over on the sour front, there’s a Summer Pudding Pastry sour from Pastore. It’s Pastore, so you automatically know is gonna be good.
Fuerst Wiacek are a new-to-CM brewery based in Germany. Berlin, to be exact. Best try their Fuzz Fruited Berliner Weisse, then. They have a decent IPA out too, if you’re interested. Sounds Good Imperial Stout might just be the best of the lot – complete with Pecans & Cocoa and brewed as a To Øl collab.
Northern Monk’s OFS series continues with West Coast DIPA. They’ve also done something special with Death By Strannik Imperial Stout, and their Hazy Rhubarb Shandy proves small beers can come with knock-out flavours.
There’s a cocktail sour from Vault to get to know, Arpus’s Lychee, Passionfruit and Mango Imperial Sour Ale, Left Handed Giant’s latest IPA, a smooth pale from Phantom, plus a trio of unfiltered, refermented Belgian saisons from Belgian family-owned craft brewery Brasserie de Blaugies. You’ve got La Vermontoise, Saison d’Epeautre and La Bière Darbyste. All as refreshing as you can get. Get stuck in!
As always, I hope you get to try some of these new beers this week.
Cheers & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
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