The art of Hope

Deckchair dude, Hope's longest-serving employee, is back for another season on the can of their summer beer. For 2024 it's nothing fancier than a New England IPA with Mosaic, Idaho 7 and Azacca. It has been designed for easy sunny drinking, and is a mere 5.5% ABV.

In the glass it's a little bit hazy, resembling dilute orange cordial, with a big pile of awkward foam. The aroma is pithier than I expected, but far from unpleasant. Hope is one of the few breweries to display their IBUs, and this beer's 8 suggests it should be barely bitter at all, but it is: not quite pithy but certainly much more zest than juice. Satsuma and tangerine dominate, giving a zingy buzz in the opener and lasting right through to a lasting tangy finish.

If the aim was to resemble an orange-flavoured fizzy drink then they've nailed it. This flavour profile, more often than not, contains a savoury pinch of unwelcome onion -- Mosaic's dark side -- but there's none of that here. It's fairly simple all told, but decent and very accessible. That's fine for a summer special.

The bad-AI can art fairy appears to have visited Hope and provided them with the dismal label on their previous special, Brewers Edition. This is a double IPA, a big one at 8.5% ABV, and hopped with Citra and Centennial, ramping up the IBUs to 70.

They claim cutting-edge hop technology has been used, though it looks very old-fashioned, being amber coloured with just a slight blur of haze. They weren't kidding about the bitterness: it's a full spectrum of citrus zest, tangy metal, hard wax and crunchy green vegetables, starting slow but gradually coming to dominate the flavour. The malt manages to hold it in check, however, sacrificing any residual sweetness to counteract the possibility of harshness.

The result is a little two-dimensional, in the way that early American double IPAs were, but is still delightfully clean, enjoyably punchy, and altogether worthwhile. It's very different to current IPA fashion, and that's reason enough for it to have been created.

Solid stuff here, from one of Ireland's most reliable breweries. Any lazy shortcuts are confined to the outside of the cans.