Salt: Track: Tramshed DDH IPA (England: IPA: 7% ABV)
Visual: Just slightly cloudy peach to lemon juice color. An inch of yellow/white bubbly froth for a head.
Nose: Pineapple. Crisp hop character. Flour. Soft vanilla. Soft peach.
Body: Big peach. A flavor like a non sour gherkin. Tart grapes. Lightly oily hops. White bread. Prickly hops. Slight nettles. Slight vanilla custard.
Finish: Peach. Apricot. Slightly oily and resinous character. Fluffy hop character. Slight bitterness. Pineapple.
Conclusion: Ohh, this is a good IPA. The cloudiness made me worried it was going into full NEIPA mode, and would have none of of the lovely hop character I crave, but, despite the fact it it wears the NEIPA style fruitiness it also has a very pleasant hop character which pushes it closer to the other IPA styles. IMHO anyway.
It is very juicy, with peach, tart grapes and an odd gherkin/pickle like note but without the sourness. Kind of hard to explain, but it is a nice, more savoury note against the huge sweet fruitiness. But again, fruit aside, what makes it work is that hop character. Crisp and clean in the aroma. Lightly oily and resinous in the body, into a fluffy style with present but muted bitterness in the finish.
So, maybe it is like a NEIPA in a few ways, but different enough in the ones that count to me. Fucked if I know which style it actually falls under – the style guidelines don’t exactly match either way. What it does match is the good hop character to sweet fruit, and just a light pineapple fresh character. There is so much fruit that it feels like it matches just enough old school IPA to a touch of what actually works in a NEIPA to the benefit of both styles. It has a slightly dry take that makes me think of West Coast IPAs, while using a touch of vanilla custard malt styling that makes me think East Coast.
Any which way it is a lovely mix up of an IPA. Deffo recommended.
Background: My first experience with Salt was a good one – they managed to put out an impressive Session IPA. A style I’m often not a big fan of, so when I got the chance to grab a full on IPA from they I decided to give it a go. I had a slightly hard time working out who the collaborator was – from the small icon on the can it looked like it said “TAACW”. Turns out it is track. Guess that font doesn’t handle being shrunk well. Don’t think I’ve tried anything from them before – though with over 2000 tasting notes these days I will admit I lose track some times. No pun intended. Went back to Tool: Fear Inoculum for drinking music. It is sooo good. This is another beer grabbed from Independent Spirit.
