Wiper and True: India Pale Ale: Sorachi Ace (England: IPA: 7.1%)
Visual: Cloudy banana to apricot. Large tight bubbled froth head of a toffee touched hue.
Nose: Toffeeish malt. Lemon grass. Crisp hops. Bubble gum. Vanilla.
Body: Good bitterness. Greenery. Lemongrass. Tannins. Dry attenuated malt body. Sour cream. Dried apricot.
Finish: Lemongrass. Seaweed wrap. Bitter hops. Charring. Sour cream and chives. Malt chocolate. Toffee.
Conclusion: This is a pretty heavily attenuated beer by the taste of it. It reminds me as much of the style’s close cousin , the APA as it does an IPA. While, because of this, it lacks the sweetness of IPA Is Dead’s Sorachi Ace, it is probably equal in how well it manages to express the hop. Lots of lemongrass and general grassiness or greenery, along with that slight bubblegum weirdness.
There is differences in the expression, here, from the interactions with the attenuated base, it gets a slight sour cream and chives style which leaves you in shock as your dry mouth fills with this new flavor.
I do prefer the IID version, but this has a sheer balls out harshness to it that actually appeals rather than repulses. It isn’t a refreshing beer, quite the opposite, nor is it an easy drinking beer. I am however happily drinking away at it as it does horrible things to my mouth.
Maybe I’m just a masochist. Which would explain a lot. Like why I’m getting topped by a beer.
Or maybe it is just that this takes an already marmite crowd splitter of a hop and doubles down hard. For fans of sorachi ace this is harsh but fun, for people who were on the fence … well, this may not be for them. By which I mean run while you still can.
Now, there is some toffee sweetness but it gets drowned out more often than not. To my mind this is a desiccated, drying, grassy, lemon touched beer. It almost demands food accompaniment in order to contrast its uncompromising edges. While I prefer other beers, I have to respect that. Quality and full of character.
Background; You know, I can see what they are doing with the labels, having a label style by beer style rather than a different one for each beer. Makes it easy to pick out beers by style. Yeah. Great, but IT MAKES IT BLOODY HARD TO TELL WHICH BEER IS WHICH AT A GLANCE. I almost missed this, before noticing that as well as being an IPA, it was a sorachi ace IPA. I’m a big sorachi ace fan, and Wiper and True have been spot on with most of their beers. So I grabbed it. Drunk while listening to some Streets of Rage OCR Remixes. Because I never claimed not to be a geek. This was grabbed from Independent Spirit. Yes again.
