Paso doble

I picked up two new ones from Barcelona contract brewer Oddity: the white one with the pink writing and the pink one with the white writing. When I went to the fridge to select the first one I discovered no natural drinking order. Both are double IPAs of 8% ABV. In want of any other pointers, the white one seemed to be the obvious starting point.

That's There, There, brewed with Simcoe, Centennial and Idaho-7. It's as New England as you please, a bright yellow emulsion in the glass with an aroma roaring of vanilla and orange juice, plus a hint of garlic behind. But there's a surprise twist on tasting. It's not a cloying sugar bomb but actually quite clean. The sweetness is dialled back to orangeade levels, with a crisp fizziness that offsets any greasy estery napalm. The booze is well hidden and the savoury element is just enough to balance the sweet orange with a brush of fried onion and garlic oil. It all works rather well, in a balanced and understated way. While I may take hazy IPA to task once in a while for being a lazy shortcut, this is definitely not that. This beer is finished, polished, poised, though still looks like beaten egg yolk. One for the haze sceptics I think, and for brewers wondering why their NEIPA isn't getting plaudits.

Its identical twin is called Safe Distance. Centennial returns, this time with Mosaic and Motueka. The latter brings a grassy note to an otherwise quite tropical aroma. But it's tropical all the way in the flavour: coconut and pineapple vibes make it taste sunny, while the thick creamy texture narrows that to sunscreen lotion specifically. There's a tiny bit of alcohol burn but otherwise it's a smoothie from top to bottom. Once again it's clean, but this time there's less to go along with that. It just kinda slides off the palate leaving nothing very interesting behind. It's nice, but I'm not sure anyone wants their high-end hazeboi to be nice. Maybe they secretly do. Either way, here's a smooth and easy-going New England double IPA, and if that's your thing it's far from the worst of them.

Oddity's host brewer Whiplash has mastered the ability of brewing strong and hazy IPA without the flaws others put in, and Oddity takes full advantage of that here. I think a bit of work putting more character into them would be worthwhile, however.