Flight of the navigator

The Northside is the east coast and the Southside is the west coast in this pair of geographically confused double IPAs, brewed by Hope for Craft Central. Both are 8% ABV and hopped with Columbus, Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado plus a dry addition of Galaxy. For the most part they look well: Northside is pale and an opaque yellow colour while Southside is an almost red shade of dark amber, though disappointingly murky. Clarity would have heightened the contrast further.

I started on Northside as the less bitter of the two, 45 IBUs as against Southside's 65. While there's a hint of vanilla in the aroma, there's also lots of sharply bitter smelling American hops, which perhaps given the selection shouldn't be surprising. Sure enough there's no juice in the flavour either, and first out is a rough and dreggy murk. That's disappointing. The vanilla sweetness is still there, with an added fruit chew element, where the fruit is artificial, not fresh. And then there's the hard green hops, acidic and tongue-coating, suggesting green cabbage and lime rind, accentuated by significant alcohol heat. This isn't a typical, or especially good, example of double New England-style IPA, which is a shame in a comparative project like this.

And so to Southside. There's a nice lesson here in the uselessness of IBUs as a measure of anything because it tastes less bitter than the other one. The hops seem to be subsumed into the weighty, chewy malt base, leaving only a subtle jammy summer fruit effect in both aroma and flavour. There's a savoury tang of white onion and a heavy resin character, though more the flavour than actual bitterness. I liked how subtle and well-integrated it all is, but it's not the hop firework that American style double IPA is supposed to be. It's a pleasant sipper, overall, if a little lacking in the personality I would expect for a special edition.

The beers do demonstrate well how different they are from each other, despite the similar specs. It's just a little bit sad that neither displays their style's best attributes. As a beer to drink rather than an experiment to evaluate, Southside has the edge, even if the reasons it's better aren't the reasons that west coast is better than east coast. Which it is.