Odyssey: Ego Wars: V2 (England: IPA: 6.5% ABV)
Visual: Light hazy banana yellow. Massive large bubbled yellow white head that leaves lace.
Nose: Pumpkin. Peach. White bread. Gentle hop character. Light grapefruit. Light custard slices. Coriander.
Body: Big bitter kick and hop oils. Pink grapefruit. Prickly. Peppery. Peach. Dried apricot. Fresh squeezed raspberry. Light toffee. Kumquat. Slight cloying touch.
Finish: Bitter hops. Hop oils. Resin. Grapefruit. Peppery. Cloying sour dough character.
Conclusion: In Citra vs Galaxy it seems the winner is pure alpha acid bitterness and hop character. Both Citra and Galaxy rock big flavor and aroma from their hop character – lots of fruit notes – this however leads, follows and ends with huge hop bitter kick. Subtle? No. In a way though it is refreshing. Refreshing as a concept rather than a refreshing beer – it is more heavy duty than refreshing flavor wise. No it is refreshing as a lot of big IPAs these days seem to emphasize the fruit, and going with very big sweetness – minimising or heavily counterbalancing the bitterness. It is good to see a non nonsense bitter hop assault of an IPA again.
While the other, fruitier characteristics are secondary they are far from absent. You get a mix of tart grapefruit notes and sweet peach that are the main hop flavours coming through. From memory I would say Galaxy is showing more than Citra. The main flavor is Galaxy – Citra seems to bring the freshness. Very fresh and just enough sweetness – just what I needed to make the hop assault survivable – definitely a good wake up call of a beer.
The malt base is pretty clean and dry – some soft toffee backing, some cloying dough like twisty – but really this just lets the hops run wild – tart and bitter.
A very good IPA – flavoursome but it doesn’t forget to bring the alpha acids that are in the history of the IPA. There is some complexity under the high bitterness, but goes more for intensity. I think many will find its rough bitter edges a flaw. I don’t. In a world of super smooth IPAs this isn’t afraid to be harsh.
I respect that.
Background: Never saw ego wars 1. Hope this isn’t one of the cases when the sequel is worse than the original. Anyway, the name seems to relate that each beer has two hops competing in it. In this case Citra Vs Galaxy. Two good hops there. Not tried Odyssey beers, but the label looks cool and an IPA is a good go to for checking out a brewery in my opinion. Drunk while listening to Against Me! Shape Shift With Me again. Not quite as good as Transgender Dysphoria Blues but still a very good album. This was grabbed from Independent Spirit.
