Sureshot: Now That’s What I Call Sureshot Vol 200 (England: IIPA: 8% ABV)
Visual: Cloudy apricot color body. Large yellow white head that laves suds.
Nose: Mango and banana. Wheaty hop character. Low bitterness. Banana custard. Peach.
Body: Egg plant. Purple peppers. Creamy and milky. Some hop character. Grapes. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Overly dry peach skin.
Finish: Eggplant. Greenery. Cream. Some mild bitterness and hop character. Milky apricot. Slightly muggy bitterness. Banana. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers.
Conclusion: This … really is not for me. It feels milky, with a kind of muggy hop character floating in it. That really does not appeal to me. Oddly looking online it seems highly rated, so it seems to be for a lot of people, knowing that I am going against a grain let’s continue.
So, that body is a pity as the aroma is actually really promising. With lots of well developed fruit flavours. Also, while it is not heavily bitter it seemed to have a discernable hop character.
The body then, well as said it is kind of empty milkiness, with greenery and vegetable notes that really do not sit well here. There are some grapes, some banana elements in the finish, but generally it is just painfully milky with a mugginess to the hop feel, which is made even worse as the thicker creamy texture makes them grip too much and that unpleasant feeling and taste just sticks around for ages. I have seen some people online describe the flavours as “Stone fruit”, which, maybe but its done in a way that feel slightly acrid and just does not appeal to me.
Its, basically, pretty darn bad. Too sticky feeling, off flavours that last too long and the fruity notes from the aroma are soon lost. So, maybe it is just my dislike of some types of hazy IPAs showing, but I really don’t like this one.
Avoid.
Background: Gosh darn it they did not list this as a hazy DIPA on the can. I should have noticed they listed wheat and oats in the ingredients, often a giveaway. Why does darn near every new IPA have wheat and oats now? Every now and then fine, but I miss standard East Coast, malt body, some malt sweetness and bitter hops. Anyway, yeah so this is Sureshots 200ths gyle, which is erm 200th batch I think? Something like that anyway. Googling brings me this “Gyle is an old term sometimes used (particularly in the UK) to describe a batch of wort or beer as it proceeds through the brewing process. Batches of wort leaving the mashing vessel or mash separator may be distributed into two or more coppers (kettles) for boiling, with the worts often differing in strength “ Described as their hoppiest DIPA to date I will admit I was hoping for something non hazy from that description. Ah well. So bias warning. Anyway made with Nectaron T90, Citra BBC, Specturm and Cryo and Nelson Sauvin T90. The hops I know from that are bangers so I still had hope this would be good despite being a hazy. Anyway, despite their over use of BLOODY HAZY IPAS which is the bane of current beer scene for me, Sureshot do tend to do good beers. Went with Paradise Lost: Icon 30th for backing music. I think I slightly prefer the original release but the 30th re-release of Icon is still amazing. Another beer grabbed from Independent Spirit.