Jersey, sure

Craft Central offers regular flurries of brightly coloured American tins at exceedingly high prices, largely made up of hazy IPAs in the way that beer these days generally is. I have little interest and usually scroll on past, but... maybe I should be checking in now and again to see if there's value to be had. These, presumably, are the beers that everyone else around the world is copying, right? OK, I've convinced me. Here's two IPAs from the less obscenely priced end of the spectrum, both from New Jersey, a lonely state, lacking a New Guernsey or New Sark to keep it company.

Brew Jersey: there's a dead clever pun. This is from Twin Elephant in Chatham. It's 7.4% ABV, hopped with Citra, Azacca, Nelson Sauvin and Mackinac -- the latter is new to me but the others are good 'uns. It presents pale yellow and opaque, something I generally take as a good sign. The can says it's "mindfully brewed" though not mindfully packaged as there's no brewing, canning or best-by date on it. Still, it smells and tastes fresh, mostly of tinned pineapple in both instances. There's a mildy leafy bitterness in the background of the taste which is presumably the Citra trying to make itself heard, but otherwise it's smooth and rather anodyne, presenting no challenges or off-flavours, but few points of interest too. It's a casual sort of conversation beer, something I'd normally be fine with, but I'd like a bit more of a firework display for €8 a can.

6.9% ABV and labelled "west coast style India Pale Ale", When The Haze Clears, by Icarus, cost me €8.85. It's not clear, looking a dirty, slightly muddy, orange in the glass. The blurb talks a good game on the hops: Columbus, Centennial, Motueka, Nelson Sauvin and Strata all feature. Nevertheless it smells sweet and artificially floral, like Skittles. So far not very west coastish. The flavour has a lot of that but there's also lots of oily weedy resins, with the pilsner grass of classic Kiwi hops butting upside the sweets. It's far from a classically clean west coast IPA, though nor is it juicy or garlicky haze. More than anything, this reminds me of drinking IPA in Poland or Spain, where they're not hung up on copying the Americans directly and introduce their own... idiosyncrasies... in their recipes, some of which work and some of which definitely don't. In the US, beer normally tastes exactly how you expect it to; this doesn't. Maybe it's an east coast satire on west coast; Jersey busting California's balls. Regardless, I appreciated that it's boldly flavoured but didn't really enjoy the rather messy overall picture.

Am I convinced of the value of high-end American cans? On this showing definitely not. But I'll check in again some time when the urge has built sufficiently.