Toppling Goliath: Field Museum: Cyber Sue (USA: IPA: 7.2% ABV)
Visual: Clear pale yellow body. Moderate, fast , small bubbled carbonation. Good sized, slightly yellowed, white head that leaves lace.
Nose: Eggplant. Apple. Popcorn bitter hop character. Orange. Tart grapes. Moss. Pineapple. Apricot.
Body: Good bitterness. Light hop oiliness. Fresh cut apple. Dry apricot. Prickly hop character. Passion-fruit.
Finish: Good bitterness. Eggplant. Hop oils. Pineapple. Charring. Orange juice. Tart grapes. Very prickly hop character. Apple.
Conclusion: This is a solid IPA, directly in the style I like. Lots of familiar citra and simcoe flavours which call back to the IPAs I tried when first getting into USA IPAs, and the mosaic which is, while not new, competitively new compared to those beers, adding some brightness, a nice twist those old school IPAs did not have,
It has a classic, slightly dry, bitter USA style with the hoppiness ramped up but also lots of fruity notes to tingle your mouth. It is lightly oily in bitterness for the hop character, but more than that is likely to show itself as an intense prickly dry hoppy kick. It starts moderately bitter but just grows and grows.
The hop use for fruitiness is wonderful with a tart grape air and pineapple notes freshening things up so the bitterness doesn’t get too painful. A slight familiar savoury eggplant note from the simcoe grounding things, but not too much.
The mosaic hops, as mentioned, make this stand out from a wealth of similar mid 2K bitter USA IPAS. The bright orange, passion-fruit and such notes bleeding into the tart green fruit. A nice twist that helps me really enjoy it.
So, solid, on the technical level only solid, not top class, but is its so very my style of IPAs with some nice twists that I enjoy it way beyond what that would suggest.
So, lets face it, well made, good bitterness, a few quirks on a main stay of a style. Yep, I very much enjoy it.
Background: So, a collaboration with “Field Museum”, I did a google, it is a Chicago based museum, and Sue is the name of their T Rex skeleton, which makes sense for the can image. In the past Field Museum seem to have done collaborations to replicate old beer styles, but here I cannot see any such link so I’m guessing its just a fun promotion tie in thing. Any which way, Toppling Goliath! Not seen them for ages, loved my last encounter with them so rapidly grabbed this when it turned up in independent spirit. This is hopped with citra, simcoe, and mosaic, three hops I am a big fan of. Music wise I expected I wanted something big to back this so went with Paradise Lost: Gothic. I also tried Toppling Goliath’s double IPA version of this King Sue – however, while well made that was a more New England/Hazy style so less my thing. It was mostly well made, some hop burn which let it down, I did not hate it, but less aimed at what I want in an IPA.
