Amundsen: Oceans West Coast IPA (Normay: IPA: 6.6% ABV)
Visual: Bronzed gold. Moderate caramel touched head. Clear.
Nose: Peach. Fresh fruit. Tinned tropical fruit. Lime cream.
Body: Kiwi. Prickling hops. Fudge. Tart grapes. Slight lime tang. Moderate fluffy hop character. Peach.
Finish: Lime cordial. Moderate bitterness. Toffee. Kiwi. Watermelon jolly ranchers. Prickling hops. Tart grapes. Malt toffee chocolate. Malt biscuits. Blackpool rock.
Conclusion:An interesting mix of IPA interpretations here – the hops are fresh fruit mixed with artificial fruit hard sweets, mixed together in a tart way – lots of green fruit, backed by a hint of peach. This kind of fruitiness usually matched to a quite clean base in my experience. However here it goes instead to the darker and sweeter fudge to chocolate base giving extra layers of sweetness. Even in that it feels off – thinner mouthfeel than a base that sweet often gives, but not as light as a drier base would be.
Then you have the hop character – a solid, fluffy mouthfeel, robust bitter core. Not overly resinous or sticky, just solidly bitter and present. All together it nearly works – nearly – but all the slightly different takes result in a bit of a mixed up beer. The more artificial sweet notes become cloying next to the bitterness and as a result the main base also feels slightly too sweet, but without the grip a solid core needs.
You end up with a beer of big flavours pulling it in every direction and as a result going nowhere. It is not that bad, but just can’t tie everything together. A bunch of experiences with no coherent theme.
Background: This is another one of those cans with a top that comes completely off – and since the can is very full it nearly resulted in some spillage. Avoided thankfully. Have to be careful with these cans. Anyway, another one grabbed from Independent Spirit – I was attracted to the brewery range by their insanely brightly coloured cans – and Chris who works there mentioned he enjoyed this one, so this one it was. Drunk while listening to Against Me! 23 Live Sex Acts because you can never go wrong with more Against Me! In your lives.
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