Wizard: Passion West Coast IPA (Thailand: IPA: 5.7% ABV)
Visual: Lemon juice colour, just slightly hazy body. Larger than normal yellow white frothy bubbled head.
Nose: Lemon juice. Grapefruit. Slight flour. Bitter hoppiness. Pineapple. Orange skin.
Body: Dry and bitter. Squeezed lemon and lemon juice. Grapefruit. Pips. Fleshy fruit with skin pulp. Lightly resinous. Some dry toffee as it warms Vanilla. Dry tangerine.
Finish: Grapefruit. Tangy. Hops. Dry, slightly granite bitterness. Some choc toffee as it warms. Dry tangerine. Mango.
Conclusion: A bit of a drier, less hop oil filled take on a west coast IPA here. High bitterness but without the oiliness and with low resinous character, making it a bit more gritty and granite like in the bitterness.
Now that may not sound good, and it is a tad rougher than my usual picks, but it is against a tangy, tart grapefruit and lemon mainstay that really refreshes the beer.
The fruit feels really pulpy, with a feeling of the mashed up skin fruitiness holding everything together, along with the more general freshness. It is a bit of the familiar but done in a different way.
Late on (or not so late on in Thai heat, even at night) as it warms, a touch of dry toffee showing the malt character comes out. Not much but it makes the previously very out of the way malt base somewhat visible.
It is a solid west coast, slightly rough in the hop influence but the tartness really helps offset that. It does not unseat Pheebok Away Gee IPA for the best IPA of the trip, but I continue to be impressed with how many proper bitter no hazy IPAs I am encountering this trip.
Not a must have but a very solid west coast.
Background: The beer I had on my final night in Krabi and in Thailand. Also the second to last night, I didn’t do notes on it the first time so went back again to have it again. This is my favorite of the two image on the label cans of Thailand, as I love the contrast between the two. This was drunk in 778th Street bar in Krabi. There did not appear to be much out of your normal beer in Krabi I could find, but this was a fairly nice place with a decent selection so did me well. Friendly staff and they had some live music on as well, so a nice place to just chill and enjoy the last of my time on holiday.
