Mama we're all hazy now

I am forever sceptical when I hear complaints about the ubiquity of any particular beer style. "You don't have to drink it," I sigh, "there's always something else." So I had to bite my lip when I went shopping for Amundsen beers in the Stephen Street News January sale and discovered all three were New England-style IPAs. Still, they're also all collaborations so maybe this is an experimental, learning experience, for the Norwegian brewery.

The first one is in association with Aberdeen's Fierce Beer, called Stardust Galaxies. There was an impressive rush of pineapple juice aroma when I opened the can, though pouring and sniffing revealed something less subtle, and more sweet, like hard fruit candy: no juice here. I see lactose in the ingredients and its effect is immediately felt on tasting, being a completely unnecessary slick sweetness. This clashes with heavy, green, bitter hops, a flavour which begins metallic before fading out as boiled spinach and cabbage. A beer of two halves, then, and neither very charming. That sickly travel-sweet thing re-enters the picture as the beer begins to warm. This is the weakest of the set, at 6% ABV. I started to fear the sequence of increasingly cloying creations I may have got myself into.

For the next one, Pinball Space Machine, the ABV moves up to 6.5% ABV while the collaborating brewery moves down to North in Leeds. It looks much the same, a pale opaque yellow, and the lac' is back. The aroma is less in one's face: just a mild nondescript greenness. The flavour isn't dull, but it's gentler than the previous. Still cabbage, but fresh, cool and crisp, with a little celery too. The unnecessary lactose thick 'n' sweet effect is still present, but it's more muted, lurking in the aftertaste. A buzz of coconut is a welcome bit of complexity and there's a cheek-warming clean alcohol quality. While not wildly different, this is better than the last one, though still not great even by the low standards of hazy IPA.

Let's bring this in. Appearance-wise, Into the Wormhole, with Finback, is more of the same. Lactose again, and the ABV is up to 7.5%. I'm now accustomed to the candy-sweet aroma, this one lacking the crisper hop veg. The texture is different, the carbonation lower and the beer smoother. Its bitterness is much lower than in the others, replaced by an almost custard sweetness; the lactose fitting in for once. That NEIPA garlic kick I had been waiting for finally arrives here, oily and sharp, wafted up on the volatile alcohol. But is it any good? Ehhhh... not really. I think this is the one that will please advocates of the style more than the others. It's hot, punchy, and is juicy if you like your juice with a spoonful of sugar and a shot of vodka.

In my 100% objective analysis, the middle one is the best of this set.