Hop soup

Three new ones from the busy brewers of Galway Bay today: yellow and hazy IPAs, because summer, I guess, and all at largely the same strength. The similarities don't go much further.

Sister Cities is a sour one, brewed with Nelson Sauvin, Talus and Citra. They're boldly flavoured hops and this is a boldly flavoured hop-forward beer as a result, the sourness having to take a back seat. That said, there's nothing too distinctive from any of the three contributors: none of Nelson's diesel, Talus's pith nor Citra's limes. Instead, it's all smooshed together into a beautifully refreshing package of juicy stonefruit and citrus, offering fancy lemonade, peach nectar, white grape and red apple: a bit of a fruit salad, really, but very summery. The sour side is little more than a dry mineral tang lurking around the finish, playfully pinching the tongue but that's all you're getting. Overall, I liked it, but the high strength gives it a flabby density which means it's not as enjoyable as lighter and zippier sour IPA, my preference. I don't see the benefit of making it 6.2% ABV.

Sacrificial Oats is rather more typical: a straight-up hazy IPA, brewed with an all-Antipodean line-up of Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Vic Secret. They're a distinct bunch of hops, and usually I would be able to pick out their individual characteristics, especially if I'd been told in advance. Not so in this opaque emulsion, and I suspect more smooshing has been going on. There's lots of garlic, much more broadly typical of the beer style than the constituent hops, and then a mix of peach juice and sweet vanilla essence. I doubt I would have mistaken it for an American-hopped job but I don't think it did the hops justice at all. It should have been special but tasted like another one of those unfortunately fashionable IPAs.

It looks like more of the same from Evil Laugh, a collaboration with top Romanian brewer Hop Hooligans. Here the hops are American: Columbus, Ekuanot and Simcoe, and yes it is very definitely American tasting. The New England garlic is powerful in both the aroma and flavour, almost scorching the palate with its acidity. Big vanilla is perhaps meant to be balancing but just adds a cloying sweetshop stickiness; a different kind of harshness. To complete the trilogy, a ballsy pine-resin bitterness, dank and herbal and unmistakably Simcoe. I mean, it's not bland, but is in that odd space between the IPA coasts -- hazy and fluffy while also aggressively hopped. It may have fans out there, particularly the Simcoe enthusiasts, but I don't think it really works.

Today's lesson: if you're not going to clean your beer to allow the hops to shine, maybe try souring it instead.