Posted on 20/05/21
Oli Meade
This week, in my roundup of the best new beers out, yeah, I highlight some wicked new beers from brewers here in the UK. But why stop there?!
With so much exciting brewing going on state side right now, it seems only right to discuss beers from further afield. So this week, get ready to meet some of the best beers coming out of the USA right now, starting with…
Equilibrium hit us with… like… 5 new hoppy treats this week, the majority of which were DIPAs, and a strong contender for best of the bunch has to be the new Equilibrium Solar Fluctuation DIPA.
Equilibrium are known for being experimental, and onto a malt base of flaked oats and wheat they poured a hefty mix of both classic and out-there hops to make up Solar Fluctuation. The resulting brew is packed full of citrus, passionfruit, melon, and pear. Fruity-hoppy sophistication… bleeding wicked stuff!
New-to-CM brewery Sloop deserve much praise for the two hoppy heavyweights they came over with this week.
Cashmere Bomb is more your classic juicy number, while Not In My Dojo is of the same ilk with but with twists. In the latter, there’s oats in the body for that soft mouthfeel, and then lime zest and lychee and – boom! – sweet, candied ginger.
Not only it Grimm’s Zonk TIPA a beautifully hopped up TIPA, it’s also TRIPLE dry hopped, guaranteeing an extra dose of hoppy goodness!
The juicy hops we all love are all on display – you’ve got mosaic, you’ve got simcoe, there’s your citra and truck load of galaxy. Flavour-wise, this is an epic melon-strawberry medley with a big, oily dankness to boot.
Sours are what New York’s KCBC guys do best, and bust into KCBC’s Snackin’ Kracken Sour and in just one sip you’ll see what all the fuss is about!
Packed with raspberry, tart cherry, apricot & plum, you have to wonder how the hell they manage to squeeze so much fruity goodness into one epic, epic can.
It’s such a tough call to say which of Untitled Art’s just-in brews is the stand out, but Yuzu Raspberry Sherbet Sour really is immense.
It’s a Berliner deep down, only electrified through Yuzu Lime, Sour Raspberries, Sweet Vanilla, and Milk Sugar.
Sherbet is the perfect word.
Breaking away from the US for a bit, you might wanna check out Anspach & Hobday’s quietly brilliant Pineapple Gose.
100kg of pineapple juice combined with the intense fruitiness of Bru-1 hops is responsible for the lashings of pineapple, then coriander seeds give it this sweet spice, and a little sprinkle of salt seals the deal.
At 3.6%, it’s nice and sessionable. Oh, and the price point? £3.50 a can!!
You just cannot go wrong with any of the FIVE chapters of Brew York’s Freaky Franchise! Each brew tells one chapter of a running story, each is brewed as a collab with one of Brew York’s favourite breweries, and you could really do much worse than collect the full set.
This Amundsen collab is as good as any. A New Beginning Imperial Milk Stout is a coffee and blueberry chocolate pancake stout, and it’s as immense as you’d expect. (Take care – Chapter 3 reaches a mega 15%!)
Talking of Amundsen, the dark beer legends are back at their best this week with Depths Of Perception Imperial Pastry White Breakfast Stout.
There’s something about a white stout that’s just pure magic… and when you find one, first, by Amundsen, and, second, laced with vanilla-cinnamon-chocolate-coffee, well, you know how good it’s gonna be!
Finally on the stout front, Neon Raptor released their 13% Abandoned Dragons Maple and Hazelnut Imperial Stout to basically everyone’s delight recently, and it has all the characteristics of a massive NR stout you’d expect.
This gem is rich, it’s dark, it’s sweet and it’s sticky.
A mega hazelnut and maple mix make this, once again, an outstanding brew.
On the subject of Neon Raptor, Bananas Foster Stout is what happened when Neon Raptor met Untitled Art. Very limited in quantity – if you want one of these, be quick. (There’s also Untitled Art’s Black Forest Cake Smoothie Stout if you fancy the double.)
While KCBC might be best known for their sours, The Ravenmaster Imperial Stout, Superhero Sidekicks IPA and This Is Your Brain On Hops IPA prove they know what they’re doing across the board. Plus, This Is Your Brain On Hops surely wins props for a wicked name.
Anspach & Hobday’s The 2nd Variant IPA, though, is equally brilliantly named. What happens when you take the two most wine-like hops going and cram them into one IPA? This winey-gooseberry IPA is the welcome answer.
There’s the usual fresh-as-a-daisy update on the Verdant and Polly’s front this week so rummage around to see what takes your fancy. You know you’re in for a juice-fest on the hop front, but you might also wanna check out Verdant’s Dropped Limb saison while it’s fresh – it’s Verdant pushing themselves into new brewing frontiers. Need I say more?!
That said, Alpha Delta’s Vesta Spectrum NEIPA rivals pretty much anything on the juice front this week. Super low bitterness too, keeping things drinkable.
If it’s drinkability you’re after, Jeffersons Interfusion Fruited Gose With Raspberry & Lactose is on hand. A sour that’s not lip-smacking or eye-watering, with lactose for a velvety mouthfeel. And if you like the sound of that, you’ll probably want to move on to Double Fusion Double Raspberry Gose at some stage.
Amundsen’s Tropical Rush Rider Sour is just as fruity, but with more sweetness, while In Cafruits #5 Apricot, Raspberry & Plum Crumble Sour is sweeter still.
There’s new hoppy stuff from the always excellent Left Handed Giant, including Directional Dance Hazy DIPA. There’s a wicked new Double-Barrelled pale, here’s you’re pilsner fix and Untitled Art finish the stack with their Black Cherry Hard Seltzer.
Really hope you get to try some of these new brews this week. Cheers as ever & happy drinking!
Oli
(The founder)
Step 1
We trawl the globe tasting great beer
