Eddy Hopper
Old Schoolhouse Brewery

On tap in the Loggers Pub, Omak Casino.
A pretty good NEIPA overall.

 

Pour is a deeply murky.muddy dark dull peach flesh that I personally find pretty ugly, but that matches reasonably with what a lot of people find appealing. The massive stiff white head on the other hand is beautiful and leaves gobs of sticky lacing down the sides of the glass that I find very much not ugly and in fact are getting me excited for the beverage to come.

Nose is immediately evident even with the glass sitting on the table a good foot or two away from me. Sweet juicy/floral hops are everywhere right off the bat. Once things start to settle down and the volatiles aren't quite so, well, volatile. Once it's reached this state, digging my nose into the glass yields a much toned down mini-display of what was so self-evident at the initial pour. Fruity/floral verging on perfume-y (but not in the way that I've seen before, especially in a bunch of NJ area brews for whatever reason), with some bruised fruit, especially peach and overripe plum.

Flavour is a little more muddled than that, but still brings a lot of the bruised fruits. The peach fades to be replaced with more of the plum (but not in the same way that I'll get plum as a stone fruit elsewhere... it's hard to describe, this is more specifically the ripe jiucy sweet flesh), some pineapple, some guava, maybe veering into some apricot... you get the idea. Candied sweet bruised tropical fruits. This is what the people want, yeah? Finish has competing elements of the candi sweetness and late late addition hop bitterness with probably some dry hopping involved as well. Finish has the hop burn type flavour without the actual burn or chalkiness I get with a lot of dry hopped IPAs.

Body is quite soft, as appropriate for style, but with a bitingly effervescent carbonation to it. Finish lingers.

Honestly, I'm surprised this has been received as poorly as it seems to be so far. I'm in the same boat as some of the others here who are not moved by the revolution of dry hopping and soft bodied sweet IPAs that are so en vogue currently, but I feel like this is a pretty well executed one, even if I'm not into the style in general. Ah, well, different strokes for different folks and all that.
I do wish, however, that Old Schoolhouse dated their cans. It's entirely possible that this is one who benefits from sitting for just long enough, or that I got a fresher sample than others and that either direction could influence ones experience and impression, but without the simple information of knowing how old it was when consumed, one is left with disparate incomplete pieces of information. But that's a rant for another day.

2020-06-15
16oz can served in a SIP Fest 2020 snulip. Don't see a date on it.

Pours hazy, grayish amber, moderate head, medium carbonation. Smell is fairly mild, but very tropical. Lots of pineapple.

Taste is tropical juicy. Good, but nothing particularly notable.

Mouthfeel is thick. Overall...it's good, but nothing particularly notable.

 

A murky yellow beer, with about 1/3 inch of white head. There was just faint grain in the nose, but mostly "frooty" hops dominated. same on the tongue, all hip kid hops. The body was the typical thin of the style, but did manage a semi-dry finish. Drinkability was typical for the style. Overall, an average, or slightly below average, example of the style. Try it or don't.