Epic: Hop Zombier (New Zealand: IIPA: 10% ABV)
Visual: Bright, clear yellow gold body with large yellowed loose bubbled head., Some small bubbled carbonation to the body.
Nose: Pine needles. Vanilla. Clean hop oil sheen. Papaya. Cake sponge. Light cinnamon. Gooseberry.
Body: Big. Oily. Resinous. Chewy. Dried apricot. Lime. Kiwi. Grapefruit. Vanilla cake sponge. Bitter. Mango. Dried banana.
Finish: Bitter. Hop oils sheen. Resinous. Grapefruit. Mango. Dry toffee
Conclusion: Ok, this is a big, sticky, chewy beer. Not a surprise for a 10% TIPA, but I am glad the weather was cooling down a tad in Thailand as I drank it, as I think in the warm, humid air this would have overwhelmed me.
The aroma is surprisingly mild, with a quite clean character. There is a gentle sweetness with a clean hop sheen. For such a big beer, based on such a hoppy precursor this seemed odd, and I was nervous it would not live up to expectations.
Then you sip it and … this is very thick, chewy and sticky as I say, instantly clinging to the tongue and layering it in resinous, oily hop bitterness. It definitely had my attention again
As you give it time sticky fruit notes develop – a whole range of them in fact, but most notably a tart fresh grapefruit character and drying mango. There is sweetness, but mainly from the fruit flavours, the body is more a heavy sticky feeling than a flavor. This character continues throughout – bitter, oily and resinous lead in as you sip and out throughout the whole thing. The fruit notes, though plentiful are backup to an oily bitter beer.
It leans towards the drier rather than sweeter side of the style, but definitely not not fit neatly into the east/west divide for IPAs from the USA, appropriately enough for an New Zealand beer.
So there we have it, an assault IPA, bitter and brash. Does the extra malt benefit this over standard Hop Zombie? I’d say no, this is still lovely and so much in that mid 2K hop overload style, but the stickier character doesn’t enhance it over the easier to drink hop zombie. Still a great beer, and delivering hop oils straight into my veins. If you can get Hop Zombie it is by far the easier drinking hop delivery system.
However this is a much more immediate beer, aroma aside. Hop Zombie built up a combo of hops over time, this is a singular sledgehammer shot – so over the short term is more immediately hoppy, brutal and rewarding.
Background: Another beer grabbed from the amazing Renegade Craft bar in Chang Mai, I have mentioned their great Thai beer selection, and the great find of The Abyss Old World, but I was deeply surprised by how large their NZ beer selection was. My aim on the trip was to mainly concentrate on local beers, but when I saw this, the bigger TIPA cousin to Hop Zombie I knew I had to try it. I love Hop Zombie, my sister brought me back a super fresh bottle from New Zealand and it was so good. So I grabbed a can of this to take away. I finally drank it a few days later on the balcony of my hotel in Krabi. There had just been an absolute downpour half an hour earlier that had broken the intense heat of earlier in the day. I was surprised that this seemed pretty darn fresh from the best before as well, they must have some good importers!